A Winnipeg woman says the province needs to take a closer look at policies surrounding addictions treatment in Manitoba.
Cheryl Chorneyko’s family member, who Global News is not identifying due to privacy concerns, has been struggling with a severe alcohol addiction for years.
Chorneyko says she wants to speak out, before it’s too late.
“The system can do better. Number one, I just don’t want my loved one dead,” Chorneyko told to Global News.
“This is eight years of trying to keep (them) alive.”
Chorneyko says her loved one has repeatedly faced barriers in accessing treatment at detox centres and rapid access to addictions medicine, or RAAM, clinics. She’s says they’ve been turned away from the clinics for being intoxicated — something Chorneyko says just simply shouldn’t happen.
“The symptoms of the diagnosis should never be the barrier to access care,” Chorneyko said. “How can you be an addiction doctor practicing in a setting that you turn people away from the number one symptom of the diagnosis. No other place in health care does that happen.”
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According to Shared Health, individuals do not have to be substance free for any period of time to access services at RAAM clinics. However, a Shared Health spokesperson said if an individual is too intoxicated to engage or communicate, they will be asked to return another time.
But Chorneyko says that puts her family member at risk; they have fallen down sets of stairs and injured themselves, and while trying to get sober, the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal are severe, she says.
“My loved one has experienced being turned away from the detox unit on a scheduled admission date, and the reason for the medical detox unit is because of the possibility of seizures. So my loved one has seizures when they stop drinking alcohol, so the only safe place for them to be is in the detox unit,” she said.
“They show up, they’re on time, but they’re intoxicated. Not a disruptive drunk, nothing (like that) — but turned away from the detox unit on a scheduled admission day for the symptoms of the illness.”
Minister of housing, addictions, and homelessness Bernadette Smith says the policies are put in place to protect patients.
“Those policies and practices are coming from experts in the field, so we trust the practices and policies put in place for folks,” Smith said.
“We want to make sure people aren’t at the point where they can’t be consenting.”
The minister also said the NDP government has reduced the number of people being told to return to a RAAM clinic on another day, due to increasing capacity, including opening the RAAM clinic at the Aboriginal Health & Wellness Centre.
“The number of people that have to come back is almost none,” Smith said.
But that’s not the case for Chorneyko’s family member, who is now accessing addictions services in Ontario. She hopes Manitoba will review its policies around addiction services, something that, she says, would save lives.
“I just don’t want my loved one to die.”
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