(File photo/paNOW)

By Teena Monteleone

Hope and the Future

Hope and the Future: a challenging year but strides taken in mental health and addictions

Dec 24, 2020 | 12:00 PM

The COVID-19 pandemic makes 2020 a year many may prefer to forget, but there is hope for the future. We’ve decided to make that the focus of our series of end-of-year stories.

“Our system and health care teams have been challenged in ways I don’t think any of us could have imagined.”

These thoughts of Dr. Stephanie Young, the Physician Executive for Integrated Northern Health with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, are no doubt shared by physicians and health care workers across the world.

“Over the past year, we’ve seen our teams work collaboratively as a province to create new programs and services that previously would have taken many months and years to create and implement,” said Young, who is also a physician based out of La Ronge.

Looking back on the year and the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it, Young acknowledged the development of testing and assessment sites, drive-thru sites, self-isolation sites to help vulnerable people, and numerous strategies to support surges in acute care settings including the intensive care units.

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“It’s been a very hard year for us all, both personally and professionally, but we’re astounded every day by the dedication and commitment of our staff and physicians who continue to show this in everything they do. We are genuinely grateful to all of our staff,” Young said.

Dr. Stephanie Young, Physician Executive for Integrated Northern Health and Andrew McLetchie, Vice President of Integrated Northern Health with the Saskatchewan Health Authority. (submitted photo/SHA)

Beyond the pandemic

Beyond the response to the pandemic, health care in north central Saskatchewan has seen a lot of advancement in mental health and addictions over the last year or two according to the vice president of Integrated Northern Health.

Andrew McLetchie said in Prince Albert, the Battlefords and other northern communities, there has been a focus on trying to enhance the programming on things like addiction services and rapid access addiction medicine clinics.

“We’ve seen investment in community recovery teams, suicide prevention with positions going into La Ronge, Meadow Lake and Île-à-la-Crosse. There’s also investments we will see in the upcoming year in residential addictions support and detox beds that will allow us to enhance capacity in Prince Albert in particular,” McLetchie said.

There have also been investments in community paramedicine in Prince Albert – an initiative with Parkland Ambulance, capital investments like fundraising for the new neonatal intensive care unit at the Victoria Hospital and initial planning for enhancement to the hospital, as well as long term care projects underway in Meadow Lake and La Ronge.

“We’re seeing a lot of work with Prince Albert Grand Council to try and ensure we’ve made a functional working relationship with our Indigenous partners to ensure enhancements to Prince Albert’s Victoria hospital are done in such a way that it keeps the facility open and friendly for Indigenous people,” McLetchie said.

That collaboration within the SHA and with First Nation and Metis partners will be an ongoing priority. And while much of the focus in the new year will be on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, McLetchie and Young said they’re both looking forward to continuing to enhance programs on mental health and addiction.

In January, they’re expecting two child and youth psychiatrists to arrive. They expect that will lead to the reopening of the 10-bed inpatient child psychiatry unit at the Victoria Hospital which stopped admitting patients last June after the city’s last remaining child psychiatrist retired.

“We continue to work towards providing the best care as close to home as possible,” Young said.

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Teena.monteleone@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @MonteleoneTeena