The former Drumming HIll Youth Centre is set to be transformed into an addictions treatment facility in 2024. (File Photo/battlefordsNOWstaff)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Addictions Recovery

Former youth centre to become addictions facility; will serve northwestern Saskatchewan

Dec 22, 2023 | 1:38 PM

A former youth centre in North Battleford will be given the chance to serve the community again – this time as a safe space for addiction recovery.

After a competitive request for proposal bid was successfully pitched by Alberta’s Poundmaker’s Lodge to the Government of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), last year, the former Drumming Hill Youth Centre was chosen as a new withdrawal management and inpatient addiction treatment facility, according to a news release.

“It is with honour that Poundmaker’s Lodge Treatment Centres will be extending its services to the residents of Saskatchewan,” said Executive Director Brad Cardinal.

“We are excited to continue to provide traditional, spiritual, and cultural healing alongside Western methodologies,” he added of the facility’s 50 years of providing treatment.

The release said the facility will serve the northwestern area of the province and will add 14 beds. According to Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill, the former youth custody facility, which closed earlier this year, was being underutilized.

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“The building obviously was vacant and was available and you know what, I’ve heard from people in our community that it’s really the priority to have certainly addictions treatment spaces but specifically detox or withdrawal management spaces,” he said in an interview with battlefordsNOW.

“We saw an opportunity here to fill a need in the community and use an existing government asset and then…work with a third party,” he added.

According to the release, while Poundmaker’s Lodge methods are based on traditional beliefs, the facilities are open to people of all faiths and creeds and at the moment there are 553 treatment spaces funded through the Ministry of Health.

“Since 2007, there has been a 53 per cent increase in withdrawal management beds in Saskatchewan and a 38 per cent increase in treatment beds.”

Cockrill pointed out that every community is facing addiction issues and said the government is working on finding a solution.

“The reality is that our community being on HWY 16, there’s…criminal entities moving significant amounts of drugs through our community,” he said, noting while it’s important to invest in the policing side, recovery and treatment must be considered as well.

“I mean there are some detox beds available at the Saskatchewan Hospital, but really to have something more permanent is really important for our community.”

“So, once we get these 14 beds up and running, I think that’s going to just be another way that people who are dealing with addictions in their life can get the support they need and get that support right here in the community.”

Meanwhile, the facility will undergo renovations and is set to open in the spring.

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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