Brightshores Health System is celebrating its early successes at its Wellness & Recovery Centre in Owen Sound.
Brightshores Foundation CEO Amy McKinnon and Mental Health & Addictions Director Naomi Vodden shared their success with Bruce County Council on Thursday.
McKinnon started by thanking council for the work that the county has done to support the facility, adding “It has become a model of care for the Province of Ontario in how we’re treating addictions and mental health.”
Council then heard about the different treatment options and stages for a client at the centre, and the challenges that those seeking treatment might be facing.
“The main difference in our model is that you don’t have to be ready for treatment. And we know that a lot of our clients aren’t ready for treatment, and there was no way to capture them,” explained Vodden. “They’d come to us and they would have an assessment done, they’d be put on a wait list for treatment, and oftentimes by the time the treatment when they got that bed, 2-3 months [later], they were no longer ready for treatment,” said Vodden.
The focus of the centre is to continue contact with those who have not received treatment, so that once they are ready, they can get it.
Vodden shared, “We have walk-in community addiction programs. We have walk-in clinics every day of the week. We have a whole array of groups that anyone can attend even if they’re not ready for treatment. We want to connect with these people, so maybe it’s about coming to a volleyball game. We have mindfulness every morning, cooking class — all of these things.”
An art room at Brightshores Wellness & Recovery Centre in Owen Sound (photo courtesy of Brightshores Health System)
The centre also offers peer and family support, so if a potential client is not ready to enter into the program, their family members can access services to get their own support.
The residential addiction programming includes up to two weeks of withdrawal management, a 90-day program, and a long-term supportive stabilization.
Vodden said that the long-term stabilization support was deemed necessary. “All too often, we were discharging patients to homelessness, which of course meant they were back with people that were using substances in the community still, so it was very hard to maintain their sobriety. So with this new model, we have some long-stay units.”
In the supportive programming, the centre offers classes for activities of daily living, and for Indigenous clients they offer a sweat lodge. As part of a partnership with Saugeen First Nation and M’Wikwedong to work with clients individually and in groups.
A healing room at Brightshores Wellness & Recovery Centre in Owen Sound (photo courtesy of Brightshores Health System)
The centre also has a partnership with CMHA’s Fresh Roots Café to provide meal service onsite.
The Wellness & Recovery centre has been operating at 100% occupancy, with 30% of their clientele coming from Bruce County.
Eighty percent of individuals on the wait list are being engaged in virtual treatment or in-person elective activities.They’ve done 33,000 outpatient visits since opening in June 2024.
