Even though she's next on the list for a bed at one of Manitoba's best mental health and drug treatment facilities, Destiny Bohemier has been waiting from a hospital in Brandon, Manitoba for more than ten months. Her friends tried to crowdfund enough money to pay for a private facility that would let her in right away, but it was unsuccessful.
Bohemier has spent many of her 26 years addicted to drugs and suffers from psychological and eating disorders. She was admitted to the Brandon hospital after her latest suicide attempt. At the height of her addiction, she was buying fentanyl patches off the street; shooting and chewing them. Countless overdoses have almost killed her.
On methadone to curb her opioid cravings for a year now, Bohemier feels confident she can fully recover if she gets into the long-term residential program in Manitoba. "I'm hoping it will be the answer I've been waiting for," Bohemier said over the phone from the hospital.
"Yet I'm also scared, because it's my last chance."
VICE News obtained new data that stitches together a national picture of government-funded rehab wait times, revealing how long Canadians like Bohemier struggling with addictions can be kept waiting for life saving treatment. Wait time varies widely, and in some places, it's getting worse.
In the absence of any national tracking, we asked every provincial and territorial health ministry for data from 2012 to present for residential facilities they fund that treat opioid addictions. Depending on the jurisdiction, opioid addicts are waiting anywhere from a couple weeks to more than two months.
But this is just an average—the reality for many people can drag on much longer, depending on where they are and their specific treatment needs.
Manitoba, where Bohemier is, reports the longest average wait times in the country: from 52 days in 2012 and 2013 to 60.6 days over the last year. The province has promised to improve the situation, and created a fentanyl task force in January with $500,000 , they just call an ambulance and bring you to the emergency room. There is no department of addictions in any of the hospitals here."
"In most cases, they put you back on the streets. That's exactly what's happening day in and day out. You either do more drugs, commit more crime, or die," he added.
The Canadian Medical Association recently released a policy paper that criticized the pervasive ad hoc approach to addictions treatment in the country. The group calls for more holistic programs that address both physical, psychological, social, and spiritual circumstances.
"Access to addiction treatment is very limited and, when available, is primarily comprised of detox or the substitution treatments with methadone or suboxone," the report states. "As addiction is a primary, chronic disease ... treatment must address all those areas rather than just one or another."
Unless the provincial and federal health departments commit to overhauling addictions treatment, something that would require billions of dollars, Ujjainwalla said one solution would be for Ontario to pay for people to get private addictions treatment in the US, which for him, is the "gold standard."
"The US is lightyears ahead of us in terms of the treatment of opioid-dependent individuals, the treatment of addiction in general," he said. "If you can't get that treatment in Ontario, the government should pay for your treatment where it is readily available."
With files from Michael Robinson
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