By Pam Wright
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The funding has dried up and Westover Treatment Centre has been forced to shut down its Virtual Day Program (VDP) designed to treat substance abuse online.
According to executive director Laird Brush, the last group commenced on Aug. 4 and without a last-ditch effort, there will be no more.
“We have reached the point where it is no longer financially feasible for Westover to offer the VDP,” Brush said. “We have been unable to identify any sustainable funding opportunities despite bringing our concerns to the highest levels of government.”
Brush, along with Jen Lebert – the woman who developed Westover’s online program in 2021 – paid a visit to Ontario Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Michael Tibollo at Queen’s Park earlier this year.
He said that while the meeting with Tibollo was congenial and the minister was supportive of the effort, it bore no fruit.
“Nothing came of it,” Brush said, adding he’s also reached out to Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP Monte McNaughton and other government agencies without success. “We’ve gone down all the proper channels…we’ve tried everything,” he added, pointing out that a total of 375 addicts have been helped since the virtual program’s inception.
Westover’s original VDP got off the ground thanks to special pandemic funding, and costs around $285,000 a year to operate, amounting to about 0.03 per cent of the estimated $90-million Ontario has budgeted annually for mental health and addictions.
“It’s a pittance,” Brush said. “Everyone is enthusiastic and says we’re doing a great job, but they don’t want to cut a cheque.”
According to data from ConnexOntario there are 115 Ministry of Health organizations offering various types of online support services, with most being virtual outpatient day programs.
Brush said they don’t compare to what Westover is offering.
“Our VDP is an intensive abstinence-focused treatment program that requires a 26-day commitment from the client,” he said, noting it’s not a “webinar.”
Brush said the evidence-based results have been reviewed by the Western Ontario University.
Plus, he said, the free program, the only one of its kind based in Southwestern Ontario, “eliminated all barriers,” making it accessible to everyone from nursing mothers to people on house arrest.
Most programs exclude people on methadone or benzodiazepines, which the VDP didn’t, Brush said.
The VDP also allowed for a very short wait time to enrol, as clients could be accepted almost immediately after reaching out, Brush said.
The waitlist for Westover’s in-person residential treatment is six to eight weeks, however, it takes months to get into some of Ontario’s treatment facilities. While beds at Westover are funded by the province, many of Ontario’s residential treatment centres cost upward of $25,000 for a month-long program, putting treatment out of reach for many people seeking help.
Brush said addiction kills and every day there are reports about the “increasing number of lives lost to overdose and the myriad of other problems that stem from substance abuse.
“Dead people cannot recover from addiction,” he added.
A question forwarded to McNaughton regarding the funding issue was answered Thursday by the press secretary for Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Sylvia Jones, noting Westover was aware that money it received during the pandemic was “one-time COVID-19 funding and for the funding to continue they would need to submit a proposal with evidence of the program’s success to the ministry.”
Jones’ office said that under Ontario’s Roadmap to Wellness, the government has invested $525 million since 2019 in mental health and addiction supports and that the 2023-24 budget will see a five-per-cent increase for the sector.
Westover Treatment Centre is a non-profit agency that’s been operating in Thamesville treating substance abuse for 37 years.
