Staff and community members celebrate outside the facility during the official announcement Tuesday. (Submitted photo/Ekweskeet Healing Lodge)

By Angela Brown

Ekweskeet Healing Lodge

Province announces new detox spaces at Onion Lake Cree Nation

May 1, 2024 | 12:58 PM

People in the North as well as across Saskatchewan will now have access to new spaces for detox treatment at Onion Lake Cree Nation, located 30 minutes north of Lloydminster.

The province announced 15 detox addictions treatment beds would open to adults at Ekweskeet Healing Lodge to serve the area and anyone in the province seeking help.

Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Henry Lewis was thrilled with the news.

“I feel a lot of hope for the nation,” he told battlefordsNOW. “We will be saving lives for sure.”

The Healing Lodge first started in 1987 as a rehabilitation centre, and has since grown to also provide detox services in the upper portion of the facility. Clients first use the detox services when they are withdrawing from addictive substances.

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“Once they have gone through detox, they are in a better position to get treatment,” Lewis said.

He added people will receive treatment at the centre for whatever drug addiction they are struggling with.

“We’re very fortunate to get those beds, because we’re the only First Nation right now with a detox centre,” Lewis said. “We’re really lucky to get that because of the demand throughout Saskatchewan.”

Legislative Secretary to the Minister of Health Alana Ross, on behalf of Mental Health and Addictions Minister Tim McLeod, said the province is pleased to work with Onion Lake Cree Nation to provide these new withdrawal management spaces for people in Northern communities and throughout the province.

“These spaces are part of our province’s commitment to add 500 addictions treatment spaces across the province, which is a key pillar of Saskatchewan’s new Action Plan for Mental Health and Addictions,” she said in a statement.

According to the province, the new spaces in Onion Lake bring the total number of treatment spaces that have been announced under the new action plan to 198. This includes 15 inpatient treatment spaces at Thorpe Recovery Centre near Lloydminster, 26 post-treatment spaces at St. Joseph’s Addiction Recovery Centre in Estevan, 32 intensive outpatient treatment spaces through the Possibilities Recovery Center in Saskatoon, 14 inpatient addictions treatment spaces at the former Drumming Hill Youth Centre facility in North Battleford, 60 inpatient treatment spaces in Lumsden, and 36 virtual spaces through EHN Canada.

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angela.brown@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @battlefordsNOW