Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK

Addiction treatment can cost people tens of thousands of dollars, and the few publicly-funded services in Kelowna are stretched thin which can leave addicts and families in a desperate situation.

The average cost of a private rehabilitation centre in B.C. is $12,000 for a month of inpatient treatment according to Canada Drug Rehab Directory. There are some addiction recovery centres in Kelowna that charge far more like Valiant Recovery which charges up to $32,000 per month.

Kelowna does have some treatment centres subsidized by the government like The Bridge, it offers a range of services but has limited availability, long waitlists and has to prioritize beds for the most urgent cases. There are also private treatment centres where people don't have to pay out of pocket like Freedom’s Door, which is a non-profit recovery program for men with an emphasis on religion.

Helen Jennens is the leadership member of the advocacy group Moms Stop the Harm in the Okanagan. She joined the organization after her son died of fentanyl poisoning back in 2016, and has been advocating for change since her other son died of a prescription drug overdose in 2012.

Jennens said finding an affordable treatment centre has been a serious challenge for years.

“When I was trying, they said, ‘it's going to be $28,000 for a month.’ I can't pay $28,000. ‘Well, could you pay $18,000?’ And we're talking about a few years ago,” she said. “Sage in Kamloops in 2015 was $7,500 for 28 days, with no aftercare, and that was pretty inexpensive.”

It often takes multiple attempts for people to successfully recover. The average number of attempts to reach full recovery is five, and the median is two.

There is a range of different types of addiction services centres. Treatment centres typically focus on the medical treatment required to physically stop using drugs, whereas recovery programs are more focused on the lifestyle changes needed to stay sober.

Some treatment centres have a full staff of medical experts like nurses, psychiatrists, addiction specialists, and more who help with each stage of the recovery process, including aftercare. Recovery programs often rely on counsellors or religion to guide people through the rehabilitation process. Some facilities have treatment and recovery programs, while some focus on one or the other.

Andy Bhatti with Interventions and Addiction Services has personal experience battling addiction. Bhatti has worked with families in Kelowna who have spent upwards of $100,000 on treatment centres and recovery programs.

“I had a client that went to a treatment centre in Kelowna 10 times, $125,000 in one year to keep their kid clean,” Bhatti said in a previous interview with iNFOnew.ca.

He had another client in Kelowna who’s family spent $150,000 on treatment centres without success, and ended up sending their loved one to a more affordable treatment centre in Thailand.

READ MORE: Addiction worker sends patients from Kelowna to Thailand to get clean

Jennens said the financial toll is immense for those who can afford it, but the bigger issue is what happens to people who can’t.

“What do you do with all those people that are living in tent cities? There's no way they can afford treatment. So to me, we're just kind of letting them die,” she said.

John Yarschenko is the executive director of The Bridge, one of Kelowna’s government subsidized treatment centres that offers detox and inpatient beds.

The Bridge has 14 beds dedicated for withdrawal management, or detox, and there are 29 treatment beds at two different locations in Kelowna.

“We actually carry quite a big waitlist,” he said. “We always triage and screen to make sure that most urgent folks are able to access service in a really timely way.”

The Bridge offers people help with the initial period when they stop using drugs, which is when the physical withdrawal symptoms are most dangerous and painful. However, not all treatment centres offer withdrawal management services, and some require patients to have a short period of sobriety before they go into the centre.

“They can experience some pretty significant medical complications and issues that most of the treatment centres wouldn't be equipped to manage or deal with. Sometimes those are medical emergencies that need to be dealt with in an acute environment or certainly having physician or support. And that's not the focus of treatment centres,” Yarschenko said.

Some centres want people to detox on their own to show they are committed to their recovery, he said.

“There's a notion from some places that that period of sobriety prior to admission may indicate more kind of commitment to the treatment pathway and willingness to go through treatment. So that's not a philosophy that The Bridge shares, but that's certainly one that I think is out there,” he said.

Dr. Michael Krausz has been researching addiction and mental health treatment since the 1990s, and currently directs the Addictions and Concurrent Disorders Research Group within the Institute of Mental Health at the University of British Columbia.

Krausz said it’s important to do thorough research on treatment centres before spending upwards of $10,000.

“I think the most important thing I would look for is experiences of people in your network who have already been through something like that and ask them for advice,” he said. “Are the centres including things you might find important? Are they just focused on certain patterns of use? Or are they just focused on abstinence? Or are they including mental health conditions which are related to that?”

READ MORE: WE DO RECOVER: Kamloops mother leaves life of crime and drugs behind

Addiction interventionist Bhatti said in his experience it’s important to address the root of people’s mental health struggles whether it’s childhood trauma, chronic pain or mental illness while simultaneously treating their substance use.

“You really have to address the trauma at the same time as the actual addiction,” he said. “Why do you want to come off with something that makes you not think about all the bad things that happen to you in life? You take those pills, you don't think about it. The minute you get off the pill, you think about it.”

Dr. Krausz said understanding why someone uses drugs is a key component to treating addiction.

“People think it's not my problem. They should just stop using,” he said. “But the reasons they use make sense when you actually try to understand them.”

He said the psychotherapy aspect of treatment shouldn’t be an afterthought but a cornerstone of treatment in most cases.

“You can only recover if you address the root causes of your high-risk substance use, your self-harm, and all these things coming with that. And substance use is not just an irrational behaviour. It has its functionalities, and people are using because of chronic pain, because of early childhood trauma or trauma in general, because of social isolation, marginalization,” Dr. Krausz said.

Facilities with trauma therapists and psychiatrists can be on the more expensive end of the cost spectrum.

“The most vulnerable people are probably unable to go to treatment centres like that because they cost too much money and they have to pay out-of-pocket," he said. "So that is also kind of a little bit weird in our society.

“Our system is so limited. There are more holes than Swiss cheese.”

Jennens said the most effective treatment is often the most expensive.

“My concern with treatment centres is, what are you getting for $28,000?” she said. “Edgewood in Nanaimo, it's 30 grand. But it probably has one of the best success rates.”

She said when her son was at the defunct Crossroads Treatment Centre in Kelowna, which was subsidized by the government, he only stayed for three days.  

“They had guys climbing over the back fence, bringing in heroin,” she said. “But, doesn't that make it worse? The government's paying for guys to go into treatment and they're putting heroin over the fence to get to you.”

Jennens said the lack of available treatment for people who don’t have a spare $10,000 might make some people try to turn to getting themselves admitted to involuntary care.

“I was in substance use, and I really wanted to get clean, I'd somehow get myself looped into involuntary care, because you get put in there, and it's free,” she said. “These people don't have that kind of money.”

Dr. Krausz said there is a long way to go before the opioid crisis is treated like the health crisis it is.

“It is a disaster. If that would be a virus, everybody would be up in arms and totally anxious,” he said. “It's costing more lives than COVID or whatever other conditions. So, we need to tackle it like that, and we're not even close.”

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