Thursday, February 4, 2021
VOLUME 3 I ISSUE 32
MERIDIANSOURCE.CA
SHA commits funds to recovery centre GEOFF LEE
WRITER
.................................. Lloydminster’s Residents in Recovery executive director, Tyler Lorenz, has every reason to smile lately, even while wearing a mask. He’s thrilled the downtown addictions treatment centre has secured a threeyear commitment of $170,000 in annual operating funds from the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) with the need for treatment soaring during COVID-19. “The demand for our program is just; it’s unfathomable. Between the two provinces, I think we have a waiting list in excess of 200,” said Lorenz. “We get 10 calls a day just to get into the program. We have no capacity to even come close to matching the demand.” Lorenz says the funding is well-timed while fearing the worst may be yet to come over the next six months to a year from the fallout over COVID. “It’s going to help us manoeuvre a little bit
and do what we can to support as many people as we can,” he said. Lorenz says they are also looking into running another sober living recovery house to go with the two men’s houses and two women’s houses they operate on each side of the provincial border. “Hopefully, we can do that and help a few more people,” he said. Lloydminster MLA Colleen Young made the funding official last week during a news conference at the centre, noting the contract with SHA was signed on Nov. 27. “We are eager to see as many positive results from this program and we wholeheartedly support it,” said Young. Turning to Lorenz, she added, “I am so happy to see the Government of Saskatchewan and SHA have finally seen the value and the importance of the work you are doing here.” Young says the funding is part of the $135 million the province has committed to mental health and addictions. “SHA has put that
Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Stan Parke, left, chair of the Residents in Recovery Society board, joined the centre’s executive director, Tyler Lorenz, to hear Lloydminster MLA Colleen Young announce a three-year operational funding contract with the Saskatchewan Health Authority for $170,000 annually, with the demand for addictions treatment soaring.
in their budget and is transferring it to them on an annual basis,” she said. Lorenz says the funding speaks to how successful their treatment programs have been, even on a shoestring budget. He says three of the people in the original program are now working in treatment programs in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
“We have multiple people with one and two years of clean time that lived a life in shelters and incarcerations. It’s really been life-changing for so many people,” he said. He says the success of the program means other rural communities who contact them for help can be supported by a program like theirs and not just in big cities.
“What we do with $170,000, most treatment programs can’t even operate a month,” said Lorenz. “We can support a number of people at a fraction of the cost. We can build this in many communities very effectively.” Lorenz called the investment from SHA a huge relief coming nearly a year after the centre almost shut its
doors due to a lack of funding. “The community has just been unbelievable in supporting us,” he said. “It got us through that rough patch at the beginning of last year. And then COVID hit and we were fortunate enough to receive some COVID funding to kind of get us through the summer.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2