Board, health department, ponder fate of treatment centre

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Nunavut’s three regional health boards say they want to resuscitate a territorial drug and alcohol treatment facility, they just need the cash.

Options to reopen the Inuusiqsiurvik Treatment Centre were presented this week at a Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board meeting.

The BRHSSB chief executive officer, Jarvis Hoult, the two other regional health boards, and the Department of Health and Social Services are now searching for a way to revive the centre in Apex, which was shut down last September due to low client rates.

But the major stumbling block is money. The board needs more than $500,000 to cover the operating and start-up costs of a new facility, Hoult told board members.

Since the centre closed, some residents have been sent to the Upasuraakut counselling service in Iqaluit. Patients who need acute treatment are sent to Hay River, in the Northwest Territories.

Nunavut’s two other health boards also send patients outside of the territory for treatment.

But at a meeting with Health Minister Ed Picco last week, the health boards said they want a new territorial facility,

“Our communities and our residents have a big problem with alcoholism and drug addiction. If we can address problems of addiction, I think we can address a lot of other social problems,” Hoult said.

But to make the centre a reality, the Baffin health board needs more money.

The Baffin health board received $744,000 during the 1998-1999 fiscal year to run the Inuusiqsiurvik Treatment Centre.

But the Baffin health board estimates running a 16-bed centre at an 85-per-cent occupancy rate would cost $1.1 million for 1999-2000. Another $250,000 would also be needed for initial start-up costs.

The two other regional health boards combined will receive $250,000 this year from the territorial government to run their own programs. But Hoult said those boards showed little interest in using those monies to fund a Nunavut treatment centre.

In total, a combined Nunavut-wide treatment centre and other regional addiction program would cost approximately $1.59 million per year.

In fact it would be cheaper to continue to send acute cases to treatment programs outside of Nunavut, Hoult said.

But he said all health boards want a new treatment facility for the territory. And the three health boards and the Nunavut health department are now expected to sit down and consider their options, Hoult said.

Picco told board members last week that he wants to see the treatment centre opened for patients across Nunavut. He said there is money in his budget for drug and alcohol addiction treatment. He said he must now examine some of those options and talk to the other health boards.

“The concern is what option and what model the health board is bringing forward as a recommendation for me minister. We only got a copy of that yesterday, so we are trying to get it up and running as quickly as possible,” Picco said.

Some of the options are:

Opening the Inuusiqsiurvik Treatment Centre and limiting the number of beds to meet the Baffin health board’s current budget. That would mean only treating patients from the Baffin region.
Open 16 beds at the Inuusiqsiurvik Treatment Centre and allocate the $500,000 shortfall to the Baffin health board budget. The centre would only treat patients from the Baffin region.
Open a 16-bed Inuusiqsiurvik Treatment Centre and use $250,000 from each of the Kitikmeot and Keewatin regional health boards. The centre would take patients from across Nunavut. The Nunavut Department of Health and Social Services would have to fund the $250,000 start-up costs.
Open 16 beds at the Inuusiqsiurvik Treatment Centre. The Nunavut government would have to fund the $500,000 shortfall for the first year and $250,000 for each subsequent year.
Continue to send clients to other programs outside of Nunavut and do not re-open the treatment centre.
Hoult said other options may be added to this list. Whatever option is chosen, all three boards and the department must be consulted.