The Tree executive director Susan Wright (left), and Inreach worker Misty Moonie pose for a photo, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Pregnant women with problematic substance use are receiving comprehensive care through an innovative provincial pilot program.

The Health Care Pregnancy Program is set up in ten sites across the province with Kamloops being the first and the demonstration site for the others.

“The results have been fantastic,” said Heather Cameron, the executive director at the B.C. Association of Pregnancy Outreach Programs. “It is a success because of so many people working hard together.”

The special formula for the program is the coordination of existing services in the community, including close working relationships with the local hospital, to support each mom with an individualized care plan. It is proving to be successful and plans to share the blueprint with other sectors in the province are in the works. 

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“Each site has a dedicated nurse or social worker who walks alongside the participants and supports the goals of each participant,” Cameron said. “Inreach workers coordinate a network of helping professionals and peers to help participants gain access to medical and social services that already exist, and support them through their transitions in and out of acute care settings.”

Participation in the program is voluntary and takes in pregnant women, and women up to seven months postpartum, who are using substances and not actively using other services. Every support plan is different.

“The plan might be to help reduce substance use, or help to regain custody of a baby, or provide support for a mom putting her child up for adoption,” Cameron said. “Detox or the hospital will phone the Inreach worker as soon as a mom is ready for help or if she is in a crisis. We take in people after birth because that can also be a time for huge growth and desire for change.”

The Kamloops site just completed its second year of the program.

“We only expected it to be a one year pilot project,” Cameron said. “The results have been so outstanding a second renewal of funding came in and we just got confirmation for funding for a third year.”

The host site is called The Tree which has been doing similar work since 2005.

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The Tree operates from the main floor of a heritage home downtown. It has a big table in the middle of it, a kitchen and a children’s play area. Participants are given healthy food, peer-based social support, connections to professional services, clothing and baby equipment. Workshops, support groups and other activities are also provided.

“We take them to appointments, pick up vitamins and groceries, anything the participant needs,” executive director Susan Wright said. “Sometimes it is just a visit to say 'hi.' The most important thing we do here is build relationships. We start with having a coffee and some lunch and spending time getting to know them.”

Social worker Angela Aspinall, and registered nurse and Inreach worker Misty Moonie are on site.

“I started as a participant at The Tree,” Aspinall said. “After I went into recovery I became a mentor in the mentorship program here. Then I went to school to get my degree. The people at The Tree helped keep my family together, I’m not sure I’d be here without them.”

Cameron said given the right supports, pregnant people can do amazing things even when they are using or obtaining harm reduction.

“I think it is important that communities come together to support pregnant people in a culturally safe, trauma informed and strengths based approach where pregnant people are steering the ship and are celebrated and supported regardless of outcome,” she said. “Our version of success can mean a trauma informed birthing experience, or the initiation of breast feeding in the hospital.”

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To date, a total of 165 people have participated in the program in the province and 64 have delivered infants.

“Every site would not have found the success it has without the community and acute care organizations stepping up to the plate and committing to this best practice approach to care,” Cameron said. “We want to recognize the local helping professionals and peers who come together daily without special recognition to create a safety support network for some of our most vulnerable pregnant, postpartum and newly parenting people and their infants.”

The B.C. Association of Pregnancy Outreach Programs is collecting a huge amount of documentation throughout the project in order to give shared learnings to other sectors and organizations in the province, to improve outcomes for pregnant people using and their babies.

The association acknowledges that this pilot project was funded by the Provincial Perinatal Substance Use Project, BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre and the Provincial Health Services Authority.

To connect with the Kamloops Healthy Care Pregnancy Program call or text Misty RN at 250-682-1066.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Ainslie or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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