May 17, 2021
Province Invests $428,000 in Counselling Services, Withdrawal Management at Klinic Community Health Centre
– – –Funding will Ensure Affected Manitobans Can Access Mental Health, Addictions Services They Need During Pandemic: Gordon
The Manitoba government is investing $428,000 to support counselling and expand mobile withdrawal management services at Klinic Community Health Centre to help address addictions and mental health needs as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Mental Health, Wellness and Recovery Minister Audrey Gordon announced today.
“Dealing with mental health challenges and/or addictions is difficult at any time, but it can be even harder during the pandemic,” said Gordon. “This funding will enhance the mental health and addictions services offered at Klinic Community Health Centre, so Manitobans struggling with mental health or addictions issues have access to the services they need, when they need them.”
The Klinic Mobile Withdrawal Management Services program will receive more than $292,000 to increase staffing, provide additional physician time and increase program capacity. In addition, the province is providing one-time funding of $136,000 to the Klinic 24-hour Crisis and Support Services Line to support volunteer training, add system capacity, hire staff counsellors and purchase equipment so volunteers can work from home.
“Klinic is pleased to receive this additional funding to help us expand our services in these two critical programs over the next year,” said Nicole Chammartin, executive director, Klinic Community Health. “We are seeing increased demand in both programs as a result of COVID-19’s impact on our community, and this one-time funding will allow us to answer more crisis line calls and to support more clients who want to withdraw from substances.”
The minister noted the proposed initiatives support access to evidence-based mental health and addiction care, and align with the VIRGO evaluation consultant’s 2018 Improving Access and Coordination of Mental Health and Addictions Services: A Provincial Strategy for all Manitobans report (the VIRGO report).
“As we continue to build up the work of our department and engage with stakeholders across the province, we remain committed to investigating and implementing evidence-based approaches to supporting Manitoba families,” said Gordon. “We have made a number of previous investments at Klinic that are seeing good results and greatly appreciate their hard work on behalf of all Manitobans.”
Since 2019, the Manitoba government has invested in 30 initiatives valued at more than $50.2 million to improve mental health and addictions services throughout the province.
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