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New provincial funding for addictions expected to bring first of its kind service to Windsor

New provincial funding for addictions expected to bring first of its kind service to Windsor

CBC30-01-2025

Windsor will get new 'stabilization beds' for people seeking addiction treatment — but what are they?
2 hours ago
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It's a well-known gap in addiction treatment in Windsor-Essex: After detox, people are left waiting weeks or months to get into a recovery program.
Outreach workers and health experts say people often relapse during this waiting period, and some don't end up making it to treatment.
"Sometimes you just lose people, they go through withdrawal management and then they have to wait for an appointment or wait for a treatment bed and that's where the real high risk period is," said Bill Marra, CEO of Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare.
But new funding announced by the province Monday for a Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hub in Windsor-Essex includes a fix: stabilization beds.
Healthcare leaders in the region think these could be a game changer for those on the pathway to recovery.
What are stabilization beds?
Stabilization beds would be available to people who have completed withdrawal management, also known as detox, and are waiting to get into a treatment program.
According to Windsor-Essex Ontario Health Team (WEOHT) executive director Joyce Zuk, this type of bed and attached supports for people leaving detox are the first of their kind in the region. WEOHT is one of the co-leads on the HART hub.
Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare's withdrawal program includes having people stay in their facility for four to five days.
Then after detox the person is usually sent home as they wait for treatment.
But Zuk confirmed to CBC News that a stabilization bed will allow someone to stay in supportive programming until they land a spot in a residential addiction treatment facility or a community-based program.
Leslie Laframboise, an outreach worker in downtown Windsor, says this is really needed.
"If they leave detox and they have nowhere to go, they end up back on the street, back using again, back in a bad mental health state, which then it takes a while to get them back to where they want to get back into treatment. So it's just a vicious cycle," she said.
How many beds is the area getting, and where?
Right now, Zuk and Marra, whose organization is also a co-lead on the HART hub, say they have few details. They don't know how many stabilization beds the region will get, but they're expecting more information and a funding letter to arrive soon.
It's also unclear where the beds will be located.
And stabilization beds aren't the only ones expected to be added to the region.
Both Zuk and Marra said the HART hub should also bring additional residential treatment beds and transitional housing beds.
Transitional housing is for people who are in recovery and have just completed an addiction treatment program. These spaces often have social workers or treatment counselors who can help people stay on track, teach them to build routine and support them in getting a job, housing or reuniting them with their children.
Brentwood Recovery Home, a residential treatment facility, is expected to receive some of the funding and open up new treatment and transitional housing beds.
CEO Elizabeth Dulmage said that in the proposal they asked for more treatment beds and at least 34 transitional housing beds. She said Brentwood's transitional units would need some renovations before opening, but she's confident they could quickly be made available.
"It's no secret that the need for treatment beds has far exceeded our capacity to be able to meet those needs and so any additional beds are more welcome than you can imagine," she said.
Dulmage added that she's hopeful the stabilization beds will make a difference by allowing people to come into treatment feeling ready.

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Windsor man who overdosed in jail was denied opioid meds because he wasn't eligible: nurse
Windsor man who overdosed in jail was denied opioid meds because he wasn't eligible: nurse

CBC

time13 hours ago

  • CBC

Windsor man who overdosed in jail was denied opioid meds because he wasn't eligible: nurse

In the weeks leading up to his death, Joseph Gratton had asked medical staff at the local jail multiple times for drug tests and a medication that helps treat opioid addictions. But the Windsor father of two would never access the prescription drug, and on an October night nearly six years ago, he overdosed on fentanyl in his cell at the South West Detention Centre. A correctional officer found Gratton, 31 at the time, and his cell mate unconscious on the floor during a routine patrol. Despite several rounds of CPR and naloxone, Gratton was pronounced dead at the hospital just after midnight on Oct. 30, 2019. A legally mandated coroner's inquest into the circumstances around his death began Monday. Inquest counsel Julian Roy revealed that a nurse had denied Gratton a prescription for suboxone, which helps people with opioid addictions fight cravings and tame withdrawal symptoms, eight days before his death. On Tuesday, the jury heard directly from the nurse practitioner in question. Julie MacVoy, who no longer works at the facility, testified that she denied Gratton suboxone because he wasn't eligible for the drug, in part because he hadn't been formally diagnosed with an opioid use disorder. MacVoy said she also didn't see any clear signs of withdrawal — though she acknowledged that those symptoms might not be present if he was still using illicit drugs. She noted that he had a history of hoarding prescription medication as well, leading her to believe that he might misuse the suboxone — a drug that poses health risks if abused or prescribed to someone who doesn't need it. "He was known to do that," she said. A previous urine test had come back negative, too. Gratton, the inquest heard Tuesday, had been transferred back to Windsor from a jail in Niagara on Sept. 29. Soon after, he asked to see the nurse practitioner and for a "piss cup" — a urine drug sample. "The nurse sent my request a couple days ago," Gratton wrote on the Oct. 5 written request. "Whats the holdup." Two days later, Gratton filled out another request for a urine test, saying he had heroin in his system, was going through withdrawal, and needed suboxone. "Please and thanks. Soon as possible," he wrote. "Been asking for almost a week. Since I got shipped back." A note on the bottom of the request from an unidentified nurse indicates that the urine test was ordered on Oct. 8, more than a week after Gratton returned. MacVoy testified that urine tests typically can detect drugs in someone's system for three to five days after – and even up to seven days later in rarer cases. But by the time Gratton got tested, it had been roughly nine days. In his medical chart, MacVoy wrote that Gratton "took contraband while in Niagara" but that the urine drug test came back negative. Still, she noted that the test was "performed late." It's unclear why she didn't order another test. Even then, suboxone can still be used to curb addiction cravings in those who've been off opioids for a shorter amount of time, the inquest heard. But MacVoy also didn't know then that Gratton was referring to opioids when he said contraband, she said. She testified she didn't remember their interaction, and as the only nurse practitioner in the building at the time, saw 20 to 30 patients per day. She wouldn't have seen the written requests, either. But if he had told her what contraband he had been using, she would have marked it in his chart, she said. She said inmates can be reluctant to admit to active illicit drug use in jail because of the investigation it would automatically prompt. MacVoy said she believed "it wasn't very common for drugs to get into the jail" at the time — but that soon changed when the facility started "having some terrible outcomes." In any case, it was also rare then for an inmate to start opioid addiction medication after they'd already spent time within the jail. "It was virtually unheard of to revisit that later in custody," she said. "Generally it was frowned upon," she said, but couldn't specify why she felt that way. Those types of treatments typically started upon admission to the jail among those who had a history of drug abuse. Things, however, were starting to change during her tenure, she said, which is in part why she considered Gratton's request for suboxone in the first place. She also believes in harm reduction and working with patients to make informed decisions. Tuesday's witnesses also included a correctional officer who was assigned to Gratton's unit the night he overdosed. Randy Mascarin, now a staff sergeant, was present earlier in the night when another inmate was allowed to walk to Gratton's cell and pass something under the door — video of which was shown Tuesday. Mascarin said the man was let out of his shared cell to give privacy to the other inmate while a sergeant entered to handle a misconduct case. He said it's normal for inmates to pass each other things — a pack of unwanted peanut butter could make another inmate's day — so he didn't think anything of it at the time. He also shed light on why the key to open the cell was with him and not the officer actively patrolling the unit when Gratton was discovered at around 11 p.m. Mascarin said he had been performing the patrols before that, and that handing them over to the other officer before he went on break was simply "lost in process." He said that issue "really ate at" him "for a long time," but that he knows the facility has more safeguards in place now. On Wednesday, the inquest is expected to hear from the other correctional officer assigned to the unit that night, as well as a senior official within the provincial corrections system on the types of changes that have been implemented at the jail and other facilities in Ontario since Gratton's death. MacVoy, the jail's former nurse practioner, said they made some changes right away, though. "We didn't need an inquest," she said. "I do think inquests need to be a bit more timely," she said, noting the six year gap. Ultimately, she said she still feels her decision not to prescribe suboxone — now available in film and injection formats that are harder for inmates to divert — to Gratton was the right call at the time, because she lacked the evidence she needed. She also offered her condolences to Gratton's family. "You don't go into medicine to watch people get hurt or die," she said, her voice shaking. "We also don't have a crystal ball." Mascarin offered his condolences as well — specifically, to Gratton's mother, who is involved in the inquest. He said corrections officers might have a reputation for not caring about inmates, but that every person who responded that night wanted to save both Gratton and his cell mate's lives. "Joseph was a decent guy to me," he said.

UWindsor receives funding by the province to provide RN prescribing course to undergrads
UWindsor receives funding by the province to provide RN prescribing course to undergrads

CTV News

timea day ago

  • CTV News

UWindsor receives funding by the province to provide RN prescribing course to undergrads

The University of Windsor seen in Windsor, Ont. on Jan. 30, 2025. (Michelle Maluske/CTV News Windsor) An exciting new opportunity for nursing students at the University of Windsor, thanks to a provincial grant. The Ontario government has invested $750,000 to support the inclusion of RN prescribing education into the undergraduate nursing curriculum at the University of Windsor. RN prescribing refers to the practice where registered nurses can prescribe medications and devices, and order certain tests, within their expanded scope of practice. This expansion will allow nurses to play a greater role in patient care and will make Ontario the first jurisdiction in Canada to include RN prescribing in undergraduate programs. Students who complete this course would have it listed on their Ontario nursing license that they are qualified as an RN prescriber. Gina Pittman, Assistant Professor for the Faculty of Nursing at the University and co-lead for the RN Prescribing program, says this will provide students with more learning opportunities. 'The monies will be used to come up with innovative ways to have students do hands on experiences with writing prescriptions, navigating case scenarios in order to make an educated decision, some clinical reasoning about what to choose in terms of a therapeutic option for a patient,' said Pittman. She said she's hopeful students in the course will have co-op placements using this curriculum. 'To be able to get that real hands-on experience, right now we're able to do it through case scenarios. We use a lot of simulation which has been really great at bridging some of the gaps,' Pittman said. 'But I think ultimately in the future if we could do a lab, or a co-op hands on, that will really integrate their learning into the real-life experience.' Pittman said those who finish this course will have more career options. 'Right now the Hospital Act prohibits RN prescribing within the acute care setting, so I think students that come out armed with this authority, they are going have more career mobility, maybe they'll be able work in the community as a newer grad, whereas that's not the case for most new grads that come out without this capability, they're really limited to more of an acute care setting.' Pittman stated that this is a pilot project course. It is not a mandatory course for nursing students at the moment. She added that of the approximate 300 students in this program in the fall, that 200 of them have expressed interest in taking this course. This course will be offered in the fall of 2025 and the winter semester in 2026. Aside from the University of Windsor, Georgian College in Barrie and Humber Polytechnic in Toronto were the only other schools selected provincially to provide this curriculum. - Written by Meagan Delaurier/AM800 News.

Local hospice volunteer recognized provincially
Local hospice volunteer recognized provincially

CTV News

time2 days ago

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Local hospice volunteer recognized provincially

A local hospice volunteer has been recognized provincially by Hospice Palliative Care Ontario. Joan McSweeney, a Journey Home Hospice Windsor volunteer, has been inducted into the June Callwood Circle of Outstanding Volunteers, recognizing her efforts in hospice care. 'Joan is the definition of dedication,' said Nancy Lefebre, SVP and COO of SE Health. 'She has a heart for the service of others, and she has enriched the life of every patient who has stayed at Journey Home through her tireless efforts and countless hours devoted to designing the home-like spaces at both the Toronto site and our Windsor campus.' According to a news release, McSweeney played a role in the creation and execution of Journey Home Hospice's Windsor campus. Her eye for decoration and attention to detail helped make spaces that feel like home for residents. 'I don't serve as a volunteer for the awards or recognition,' said McSweeney. 'While it's lovely to be receiving this prestigious award, my involvement with Journey Home Hospice is due to my belief in the hospice movement. It's the biggest honour to make a small impact on the lives of those receiving compassionate care at the end-of-life.'

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