"This is monumental for us. It's a huge leap forward in the services we will be able to combine and provide for individuals," said Roxane Zuck, CEO of Monarch Recovery Services in Sudbury.
Zuck was speaking at the provincial announcement Friday morning when Michael Tibollo, Ontario's Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, revealed that the province was providing $2.5 million through the Ontario Addictions Recovery Fund. The announcement was made from Monarch's Ramsey Street location.
Zuck said Monarch will have a new multi-faceted facility that will combine several of the existing Monarch services that are now situated in five different locations.
"It's a great thing for the community. All of our services will be together. There will be that continuum of care. Individuals can go from one program to another without having to drive across the city, or walk. And, you know, it's just that the staff are very excited. I'm very excited about it," said Zuck.
She said the new venue will be created on Jean Street at the site of an old school.
"And it's big enough to house all of our programs,” she said, including the 18-bed men's recovery home, 14-bed women's treatment, flex beds, and six withdrawal management beds, as well as various treatment programs.
Mayor Brian Bigger also spoke at the announcement and said he was pleased to learn of the provincial spending because it will lend hope in the local battle against opioids and homelessness.
"One lesson we've all learned during the pandemic is that investing in mental health and addictions programming is essential, absolutely essential," said Bigger.
"Another lesson we've learned is that much of our local resources are simply not destined to reach their potential without provincial support. That is why I am sincerely grateful for the province's $2.5 million commitment to Monarch Recovery Services to help close some of the ever widening gaps and get more properly funded services in place to help our people get off the streets and deal with their addictions."
He said the municipality was thankful for the quality of care being provided by Monarch, especially now as the need for mental health and addiction services continues to grow.
"As we know, Northern Ontario is being disproportionately impacted by the opioid crisis with the highest death rates per capita in Ontario and some of the highest in Canada. We're doing our best to implement solutions, but the urgent need to offer mental health and addiction supports is more important now than ever before, which means there is still more work to be done," said the mayor.
Tibollo, himself a former addictions counselor, said he truly understood the need to do more to help individuals in crisis. The minister said he has heard so many stories of the struggles that people have endured across the province and in most parts of Northern Ontario, adding the pandemic has not made anything easier for people living with these "unpredictable situations unlike anything we've ever seen before."
If anything, said Tibollo, the issues of anxiety, depression and isolation have only made things worse.
"And the pandemic has really tested our collective resilience. We know that it's only led to more complex challenges. And these challenges are especially significant to people with mental health issues. And as many of you know, the number of deaths that have been attributed to opioids has more than doubled during the pandemic. And there's been a growing need for high quality addictions care across the province, particularly in rural, Northern and indigenous communities," said Tibollo.
He said the funding announcement would be providing an additional 15 treatment beds over and above those already provided by Monarch. Tibollo said this would provide support to people in Sudbury and for referrals from across the province.
Zuck said no information is ready on when construction renovation work will begin on the new building, but an announcement could be soon. Zuck said that "clean-up" on the new site has begun.
Len Gillis is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Sudbury.com. The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible with funding from the federal government.
