Woman opens her home to some of thousands unable to get into only detox centre in Thunder Bay, Ont.
CBC
Sitting at her kitchen table, Brenda Letourneau points to the couch that has acted as a de facto detox bed for dozens of people in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Letourneau said she opens up her own home because there is often nowhere else to go for people trying to get out of the downward spiral of substance use, and she's watched too many die from drug-related overdoses.
"When an addict asks for help and they're ready to get clean, they need it now. They can't wait," said the 45-year-old.
As someone who in the past needed detox from drugs herself, she can relate.
In Thunder Bay, though, roughly 3,000 people are turned away every year from the city's only withdrawal management program.
That's an average of about eight people denied access to services every day.
Others looking for help call the centre every hour until they finally get in. Or they give up.
The 25-bed Balmoral Centre simply doesn't have enough space, according to Nancy Black, St. Joseph's Care Group vice-president of addictions and mental health. The care group is responsible for funding and operating the centre.
"The centre operates at full capacity, 365 days a year," Black told CBC News, which means providing services to about 3,000 individuals every year. One average, a person in need spends three days at the facility.
This past spring, a formal proposal was submitted to the Ontario Ministry of Health for a new 40-bed mental health and addictions crisis centre in Thunder Bay.
But that proposal has for months sat on the desk of Michael Tibollo, the province's associate minister of mental health and addictions, without any response, Thunder Bay Mayor Bill Mauro said.
Letourneau said the first time she went to detox was April 21, 2008. She was pregnant and had relapsed after trying to quit using on her own.
It took her 10 days to get in. Letourneau said the drug situation has only worsened in the last decade.
"The drugs are more toxic and lethal than I've ever see," she said.
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