P.E.I.’s health minister confirmed the Provincial Addictions Treatment Facility in Mount Herbert will close when the government opens its new mental health and addictions campus in Charlottetown — sparking concerns among opposition MLAs about a lack of detox beds in the province.
The Mount Herbert facility, just outside of Stratford, offers day programs for people with addictions and inpatient detox services, which will be transferred over to the new campus — located near the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown — once construction is complete. That’s now expected to be sometime in 2027.
In the legislature Thursday, Green MLA Karla Bernard said she was surprised to hear the government’s plan to close the Mount Herbert facility during debate of the capital budget last week. She pressed Minister of Health and Wellness Mark McLean for answers about why the province plans to close the building.
“This is offensive and completely out of touch for a government who says this is a priority,” Bernard said.
“What data can you share with us that indicates that the current Mount Herbert provincial addiction treatment facility is operating well below its full capacity to the point that we can get away with no additional detox beds?”
P.E.I. Green Party MLA Bernard says day programs and detox beds are both good services for treating addictions, but serve two different purposes. (Rick Gibbs/CBC)
The Mount Herbert facility currently has 16 detox beds, and McLane said all of them will be carried over to the new acute-care campus.
Bernard said that isn’t enough. Instead, she said she’d like to see it stay open when the new facility is finished in order to increase the overall number of detox beds available to Islanders.
“The new hospital, although it has doubled in cost, will not have an additional beds. We’ll still be stuck with the same 16 beds, which is just going to continue on with our problem,” Bernard said.
“We know when people want that treatment, the best treatment is to get it right away and we have people waiting days, weeks and months for a detox bed as it is now.”
The province also confirmed that the overall cost of the new mental health campus has gone up. It was initially announced at $100 million, which was later increased to $200 million. Thursday, the province said the budget is now more than $271 million.
‘We do need more beds’
McLane said recent trends in mental health support have pointed toward the need for community-based and home treatments, saying they don’t have the same stigma that can be associated with a hospital stay.
“Our intensive mental health and addictions program, which is run from 9-5 [and] allows patients to go home and maintain their support systems around them, has really been successful.” McLean said.
“We’re really proud of open-access counselling clinics that we’ve opened across P.E.I. as well.”
Bernard countered that day programs and detox beds, although both good services, are two different things. She said a walk-in mental health clinic is not the right place for someone requiring detox.
“We need to acknowledge the fact that we do need more beds,” Bernard told CBC News after question period in the legislature.
“If you were having a heart attack, you’re not going to your family doctor, you’re going to the hospital…. Same could be said for detox beds. If you are wanting to go through withdrawal management, you go to withdrawal management or detox bed, you don’t go to open-access counselling.”
Health Minister Mark McLane says recent trends in mental health and addiction treatment have been leaning toward community-based treatment programs. (Rick Gibbs/CBC)
McLean said about 175 people have been referred to the province’s community-based withdrawal program, and staff in his department have given positive feedback.
“There’s been a move across the country to community-based withdrawal management. We do have an outpatient management withdrawal program,” he said.
“It allows people to manage withdrawal and to go back to the community and their support systems.”
McLean said staff have told him that the demand for detox beds appears to be more seasonal in nature, and that the need could be based on the severity of withdrawal symptoms.
