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NEW ADDICTIONS FACILITY OPENS IN THOMPSON TO SERVE NORTHERN MANITOBA

  THOMPSON-A new, $9.3-million Thompson-based facility will strengthen addictions services and treatment for northern Manitobans, Healthy Living Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Steve Ashton announced here today at the official grand opening of the facility.

 "We are committed to breaking the chains of addictions and reducing the cost of addictions to the individual, families and communities," said Irvin-Ross. "Our investments in this facility and its programs will ensure that people in the north continue to have access to quality addictions treatment in their region."

Highlights of the new facility and its services include"

]l.     short- and long-term residential treatment programs;  

.     community-based day programs including assessment, counselling, prevention, education and regional administration; 

.     treatment programs for clients living at home as well in the residential program;

.     a cafeteria, learning centre, medical assessment, fitness and common room to supplement the treatment areas; and

 .     being well placed in a wooded area in the community with ready access to the outdoors.  

"This facility has been a long time in the making and we are very pleased that the provincial government saw this as a priority and has turned our 'dreams' into a reality for our clients," said John Borody, chief executive officer of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM).   "During the design of this building we had four major goals:  to ensure the space met the needs of our clients, that it had a homey atmosphere rather than an institutional feel, that it was culturally sensitive and was environmentally friendly.  By all accounts we met all four objectives with the help of our community, the provincial government and our partners in this project." 

In 2008, a total of 1,140 clients participated in addictions programs in Thompson.

"This is yet another example of our commitment to meeting the goals of the Northern Development Strategy and investing in services and infrastructure in northern Manitoba," said Ashton.  "The new facility builds on important work we've already done and will guide future investments in Thompson and the region."

 The services offered in the new facility will complement other work done by AFM and other health-care workers in the region.

"The close proximity of the new Addictions Foundation of Manitoba facility to the regional facilities will further strengthen the existing partnership that exists between the two organizations," said Gloria King, chief executive officer of the Burntwood Regional Health Authority.  "We look forward to the many more opportunities this will allow the region to work together with AFM."

lth challenges.

The services offered in the new facility will complement other work done by AFM and other health-care workers in the region.

The ministers noted that today's announcement builds on other improvements to mental-health and addictions services in Manitoba including:

.     developing a five-point plan called Breaking the Chains of Addictions to lead the province's adult addiction services;

.     investing $2.8 million for mental-health and community-based addictions services, in addition to $17.7 million committed in 2005 to expand the province's mental-health and addictions strategy; and

.     creating a multi-agency centre to enhance supports for Manitobans living with addictions and mental-health challenges.

Vancouver’s Insite found cost effective “The threat to close Insite [Vancouver's supervised injection facility] appears to be based more on emotional reactions to the facility and drug addicts than to cost-effectiveness analyses” say three New York experts who evaluated the agency. The evaluation is reported in an article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal
        Insite, opened in 2003 under an exemption from Canadian federal drug laws. The federal government in 2007 not to extend Insite's exemption from federal drug laws was not based on assessments of the facility's cost-effectiveness.
            “Based on the evidence to date, Vancouver's supervised injection facility not only saves costs, it also meets these broader criteria for effectiveness” the evaluators state.

130 for-profit clinics eroding fairness 
in Canada:s health system

“We found evidence that for-profit clinics are eroding the fairness and equality of Canada’s health system”, says the report of the Ontario Health Coalition. The report found that 130 for-profit surgical, MRI/CT and “boutique” physician clinics have emerged across Canada. since the early 1990’s. The author calls upon the federal government to live up to its responsibility to protect Canadians from extra-billing and two-tier health care:
        The researchers found that 89 of the clinics are suspected of violating the   Canada Health Act by billing are billing provincial health plans and also charging extra fees are billing provincial health plans and also charging extra fees to patients.“The charges are unaffordable for all but the wealthiest 
    "Canadians. Clinics told us they charge $13,000 - $20,000 or more for knee surgery, $1,200 - $2,000 or more for cataract surgery, and hundreds to thousands of dollars for MRIs.”
             Natalie Mehra, Director of the Ontario Health Coalition is the author of the report, Private For-Profit Health Clinics Eroding Public Health Care

Poorer and less educated die 
sooner, Statcan reports.
 Between 1991 and 2001, the lowest mortality rates occurred among the university-educated, the employed, those in professional and managerial occupations, and those in the top income brackets, Statistics Canada reports in the September 2008 edition of Health Reports. Among the conclusions are these:
•   The highest mortality rates were among people with less than secondary graduation, those who were unemployed or not in the labour   force, those in unskilled jobs, and those in the lowest income brackets.
•   Life expectancy increased in each successively higher income group for both sexes.
•   Only 51% of men in the poorest one-fifth of the income distribution were expected to survive to the age of 75, compared with 72% of those in the richest one-fifth of the income distribution. 
•   Among women, 72% in the poorest one-fifth were expected to survive to 75, compared with 84% in the richest one-fifth.
•   For both sexes, and for all except the oldest age group (85 or older), mortality rates were highest among those with the least education, and fell with each increment of education.
     "The Canadian census mortality follow-up study, 1991 through 2001" is the first in Canada to examine mortality by socioeconomic status in the total population through a linkage of census and mortality records. It tracked mortality from June 4, 1991, to December 31, 2001, among a 15% sample of the adult population (about 2.7 million people), who completed the long-form census questionnaire. During this period, there were more than 260,000 deaths in the sample.
www.statcan.ca

Five Aboriginal medical students to receive $7,000 scholarships in Manitoba. 
The Manitoba government is providing $35,000 to award five
scholarships of $7,000 to Aboriginal students who want to become
doctors, Advanced Education and Literacy Minister Diane McGifford
and Health Minister Theresa Oswald announced.
       Students receiving the Aboriginal Medical Student Scholarship also commit to signing a return-of-service agreement to practise medicine in Manitoba for six months for each $7,000 scholarship they receive.
      There are 110 first-year students enrolled in the University of
Manitoba's faculty of medicine this fall, the largest class on
record.  Earlier this month the province expanded the incentives
it offers for new physicians to stay and work in Manitoba, in
particular, in rural areas.
204-945-8509.

People on the move affect TB control.
 Globalization and populations on the move, unsettled affect and isolated affect TB control, the World health organization reports. 
        Deprived isolated communities within wealthier environments are a challenge for tuberculosis control and TB remains an important public Health Problem in industrialized countries, A World Health Organization bulletin reports. 
         The bulletin states: “The association between TB and poverty is mediated by overcrowding, poorly ventilated housing, malnutrition, smoking, stress, social deprivation and poor social capital.”
          It points to several major populations, that include:
·        Displaced populations, migrants and refugees, living in uncertain conditions;
·        cross border movements, mainly low income living near a border and working in a neighbouring country;
·        itinerant mobile communities, gypsies, travellers and Roma populations; 
·        homeless people in wealthy cities; and 
·        injection drug users. 
These communities are all at greater risk of TB infection and are likely have worse health outcome than the general population. 
        The report calls for the raising of TB awareness within staff from primary care, social services, public services, teachers, nongovernmental organizations and the general public.
    The report , Tuberculosis control in vulnerable groups, was prepared by Jose I Figueroa-Munoz, Pilar Ramon-Pardo

Manitoba expands rural health care strategy

Manitoba is expanding its rural health-care strategy by increasing incentives for medical students in Manitoba's growing medical-school classes to build their careers in a rural community, Health Minister Theresa Oswald.
          The province added $220,000 in funding will expand its Medical Student/Resident Financial Assistance Program. Third year medical students will be eligible for a provincial grant of $25,000, up from $15,000, if they commit to practising in a rural community for one year

Health insurance and workers comp 
compete for resources
Provincial healthcare insurance plans and the provincial workers' compensation boards are in competition for the same resources, according to an article in Healthcare Policy / Politques de Santė. Though parallel they do intersect.
        The report identifies policy events and decisions taken by each payer that had consequences for the other. These events include changes to governance, funding and service delivery within each system. The events also generated interactions transmitted through the political, institutional and economic environments (primarily through competition for the same resources) and cross-system learning.
        “The two payers currently lack a formalized process by which to consider such spillover effects and to coordinate policy between them,” the researchers point out. 
        The report "Parallel Lines Do Intersect: Interactions between the Workers' Compensation and Provincial Publicly Financed Healthcare Systems in Canada" was prepared  byJeremiah Hurley, Dianna Pasic, John N. Lavis, Cameron Mustard, Anthony J. Culyer and William Gnam 080822  

00 Addiction Education Program provides a  comprehensive program for social service and health science professionals, and those aspiring to enter the addiction field.

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