“It’s frustrating knowing there’s people dying out there. There’s people suffering out there because they can’t get into a treatment centre.”
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A new addictions treatment centre near Lumsden, which was supposed to be the largest facility of its kind in the province, has not accepted any in-patients for full stay and treatment since it opened last spring, according to former employees.
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The 60-bed Willowview Recovery Centre, located about 30 kilometres northwest of Regina, was funded by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and is operated by EHN Canada, one of the country’s largest providers with a network of publicly-funded and private treatment services.
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Former employee Mandy Challis, who worked as a senior admissions co-ordinator from May to October 2024, says no patients came through the centre while she was there. Challis added that she signed people up for an admission waitlist and she would get calls pleading for treatment access.
“I talked to so many mothers — mothers and fathers,” Challis told the Leader-Post on Thursday afternoon. “One day I spent four hours on the phone with a mother that was just so desperate to save her child.”
Challis said people would ask when they might be admitted, but there was no opening date she could provide. The now-former employee knew of four people on the waiting list who died before they could access treatment, one of whom was a friend.
The Saskatchewan government unveiled the EHN Willowview Recovery Centre a year ago, saying the addition of its new Lumsden facility would give Saskatchewan 168 treatment spaces across the province. The government’s long-term Action Plan for Mental Health and Addictions has an eventual target of 500 spaces.
Adults 18 and older at the centre were to receive “holistic, wrap-around inpatient addictions treatment” for up to 16 weeks, according to a government news release last year.
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Trevor Cyr was initially “excited” to work at the facility as a support worker. He had friends and family who were supportive and asking him how intake works, but Cyr says he was not allowed to speak about how the centre hadn’t yet opened.
“It should be open,” he said at a news conference Thursday in Regina. “It should be open to help the people in recovery and looking for treatment.”
After three months, the rose-coloured glasses were lifted and he resigned in September of last year.
“I was there for the right reasons, to be there to help people recover, to do my part as a recovering addict,” he said.
Betty Nippi-Albright, shadow minister of mental health and addictions for the NDP Opposition, says she heard the facility does not have proper sewage capacity and isn’t up to fire code, among other issues.
She is critical of the governing Saskatchewan Party for not filling the 60 spaces at the facility.
“It’s frustrating knowing there’s people dying out there,” she said during Thursday’s news conference. “There’s people suffering out there because they can’t get into a treatment centre.”
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Nippi-Albright said she will be calling on the provincial auditor to conduct a full investigation into what she called the “alleged financial impropriety.” The Saskatchewan NDP also said it filed several freedom of information requests with the province this week regarding the facility.
The office of Lori Carr, minister of mental health and addictions, was reached for comment Thursday on whether any in-patients were being admitted and if there are issues with the facilities.
“EHN Canada and the Rural Municipality of Lumsden are working together to address building renovations to enhance the property’s fire safety. While renovations are undertaken, EHN is providing intensive day treatment services while they transition into overnight occupancy,” said a government spokesperson in a prepared statement, adding that an announcement is expected in the coming days regarding facility operations.
The statement went on to say that day participants at Willowview Recovery Centre are offered intensive programming. That includes individual and group counselling sessions which run seven days a week for four to 16 weeks, depending on the patient’s needs. Staff members at the facility are also available for support through phone calls after hours “in case people in the day program find themselves struggling when they return to their home each night,” the statement added.
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The Leader-Post reached out for a comment from EHN Canada, but the company did not respond before publication.
The Lumsden facility has been busing patients in and out for treatment during the day from a pick-up point, according to Nippi-Albright. But Challis says it can be difficult for unhoused people in particular to arrive for day treatment pickup at specified times each morning rather than be taken into care for the full duration of treatment.
The government also funds 36 virtual spaces through EHN Canada for eight weeks of online treatment and 10 weeks of aftercare support, according to the EHN website.
— with files from Angela Amato
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