Interior Health officially opened its newest clinic on Friday afternoon in Kelowna.
The Cedar Sage Health and Wellness clinic will offer support for people in the early stages of dealing with mental health and addiction issues, in order to prevent them from getting worse.
Patients would be referred to the clinic by their family physician, and would receive short term treatment before going back to their doctor with a care plan.
In addition to treating mental health and addiction, Primary and Community Care Transformation Director Greg Cutforth says the clinic could expand the care it offers.
“Over time, we’re going to be shifting services to include primary care,” says Cutforth. “So it’d be general practice for those patients who don’t have a primary doctor.”
The clinic is expected to treat 30 patients a day from Monday to Friday, although Interior Health already plans to extend its hours to evenings and weekends.
Interior Health worked with local Aboriginal partners when planning and designing the clinic, which was named after medicines used in Aboriginal medicine and healing practices.
IH has also put an emphasis on treating Aboriginal patients at Cedar Sage.