COVER STORY
COVID AND ADDICTIONS IN RURAL ALBERTA BY KRISTIN BAKER
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS BEEN WITH US FOR WELL OVER A YEAR NOW. IT HAS BEEN A TIME IN WHICH ALBERTANS HAVE FACED A RANGE OF UNCERTAINTIES AND CHALLENGES. ALONG WITH THE WORRY OF CONTRACTING THE VIRUS CAME OTHER CONCERNS, SUCH AS SERVICE DISRUPTIONS AND DECREASED TIME WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY. MANY FACED SIGNIFICANT LOSSES SUCH AS THAT OF A JOB, A BUSINESS, OR A LOVED ONE.
Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), loneliness, and reduced access to services. “I think it was the isolation and the fact that there weren’t as many agencies available to support them and check in on them as there would have been normally,” she says. COVID-19 also complicated the implementation of treatment plans for clients. Even something as simple as transporting a client to a recovery centre became impossible, especially to a facility located far from the Cold Lake area.
FOR THOSE WHO WERE ALREADY LIVING with mental health or substance use disorders, the pandemic only increased difficulties. This is especially so for people living in the province’s rural areas, where COVID-19 heightened isolation and amplified an existing shortage of supports.
Diane Gillan
“Finding access to treatment that could be successful for those individuals has been quite a challenge,” says Diane Gillan, RSW. “It always was a challenge but COVID has made it bigger.”
Gillan recently worked as a post diagnostic outreach worker at Lakeland Centre for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in Cold Lake (she left the position at the end of 2020). In the first 10 months of the pandemic, she saw a marked upswing in substance use amongst clients as well as in other community members. She believes several factors may have played a part in people’s increased use, such as the extra funds available through the Canada
“The pandemic has added another layer of challenge. In the past you could set up those connections so that when the bus arrives, someone will pick you up [to take you directly to a designated recovery facility]. Without the ability to make those connections now, it’s pretty tricky.” Some facilities near Cold Lake have strict detox requirements or medication rules; this makes it difficult for a number of clients to obtain a treatment bed in the area. Gillan used to be able to refer some of those clients to a Saskatchewan-based rehabilitation centre, but during the pandemic, health regulations restricted out-of-province patients. Since there is often a sense of urgency from clients when they decide to access treatment, these extra obstacles affected some clients’ ability to pursue help. “We tried really hard to constantly think outside of the box and come up with ways that would allow a client to get access to services. But sometimes all you can do is a regular check-in, so they know you’re available if something goes sideways.” Gillan is also on the board of the John Howard Society in Cold Lake. In early 2021, they were able to open a new men’s shelter and hire a part-time outreach worker. “That THE ADVOCATE
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