Addictions Treatment

Outpatient treatment can be a good standalone option for someone with lower risk substance use or it can be part of a long-term treatment program. It is often also a starting place for exploring the options listed below. While attending outpatient appointments, people can continue to carry on with their day-to-day activities such as working, school and caring for family.

Intensive Outpatient Services

Intensive outpatient programming is a less restrictive treatment option that does not require an overnight stay at a treatment facility. However, outpatient programs usually require several hours/weeks (nine hours or more) spent visiting a local treatment centre or engaging in virtual treatment sessions, including individual and group counseling.

Intensive Outpatient services are available across Saskatchewan.

Day treatment: Day treatment programs offer activities like those of outpatient services, but on a more structured and intensive basis, with people attending on a daily basis. Individuals may participate in up to 25 hours of programming per week in a day treatment program.

Intensive Outpatient and other community addictions services in Saskatchewan can be found by visiting our map of services.

Addiction Medicine

Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT) uses medications such as methadone and buprenorphine/naloxone to treat opioid use disorder. Examples of opioid drugs include heroin, oxycodone, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), fentanyl and Percocet.

OAT helps people improve their day-to-day functioning, manage withdrawal symptoms, reduce drug-related harms, and support long-term recovery. Other benefits include:

• reduces the risk of an overdose and death;
• leads to improved quality of life and mental health;
• reduces emergency department visits and hospital admissions;
• lowers rates of infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C; and
• decreases justice and social service involvement by lowering drug-related crime and incarceration.

Where to Access

• OAT clinics
• Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine
• Virtual Access to Addiction Medicine (VAAM)

Withdrawal management is an important part of, and often one of the first steps in, the continuum of care to address substance use for individuals in need of assistance with withdrawal from alcohol and/or other drugs.

Withdrawal management often begins at an inpatient facility, whereas other individuals may be able to undergo the process of withdrawal and stabilization on an outpatient basis. A planned withdrawal management supports the individual to undergo the process of withdrawing from substances in a safe and effective manner, with medical and personal care provided as needed.

Withdrawal Management Services (Detox) with 24/7 Access in Saskatchewan can be found by visiting our map of services.

Inpatient addiction services provide time-limited treatment in structured, substance-free, live-in environments. Individuals accessing these services are most likely to be those with more complex and/or chronic substance use for whom outpatient treatment services have not been effective. Treatment includes individual, group and family involvement, psycho-social education, and life-skills training. There are clinical staff on site 24 hours a day. Some programs may also provide medical, nursing, or psychiatric support.

Inpatient addictions treatment programs provide daily programming that supports participants to examine and work on the underlying causes of their substance use (such as trauma, grief, and family origin concerns). There is also a focus on identifying and practicing skills such as boundary setting, co-dependency, communication, anger management, and relapse prevention. In addition to the daily programming above, some inpatient addictions programs will offer land-based services.

Inpatient addictions treatment services in Saskatchewan can be found by visiting our map of services.

There are additional inpatient treatment services available across Saskatchewan for treaty status First Nations individuals. To access these services, contact the Saskatchewan Region's NNADAP Program Manager at 306-564-9085. You can also contact the main Saskatchewan Regional Office at 306-564-9098 or 306-564-9087 or view Saskatchewan treatment centres.

Transitional support services (which includes second-stage sober living, and pre or post-treatment) are highly structured community-based environments or continuums of care in which the primary goals are the treatment of substance use and the fostering of personal growth and overall wellness and recovery.

This safe, substance-free accommodation is suitable for individuals who do not require intensive inpatient treatment, but who need a safe, supportive environment to continue towards their recovery goals.

Transitional Services may also meet the needs of individuals who require additional stabilization and support while they wait to transition into inpatient treatment, or transition into independence and integrate into the community, after completing inpatient treatment.

Transitional Support Services offered in Saskatchewan can be found by visiting our map of services.

Overview

Addiction is an illness that if left untreated can worsen and can eventually cause a person to lose their ability to make safe decisions regarding their health and well-being.

Compassionate Intervention supports adults with severe addictions to be treated when they are unable to ask for help themselves. Compassionate intervention will only happen in rare cases where a person’s substance use puts their own life or the lives of others at serious and imminent risk. The goal is to see more people get the help and support they need to overcome addictions and live healthy lives in recovery.

Involuntary addiction treatment gives people a chance to detox from substances and start recovery with medical and mental health support by intervening before it is too late.

The proposed The Compassionate Intervention Act is another step towards our government’s goal to see more Saskatchewan people get the help and support they need to overcome addictions and live healthy lives in recovery.

Download Questions & Answers

Contact

You can email us at MHAB@health.gov.sk.ca or call toll-free in Canada and leave a detailed message at 1‑833‑550‑5504. All messages will be reviewed and considered as part of the development and implementation of Compassionate Intervention.

Involuntary detoxification/stabilization serves as a measure of last resort for parents, legal guardians, and judges when it is determined that a youth's substance use has damaged their decision-making ability to the point they present a risk to their own safety or the safety of others.

The Youth Drug Detoxification and Stabilization Act provides families and care providers with options for accessing services on behalf of youth who are unwilling or unable to engage in voluntary service for severe substance abuse or substance dependence.

• The purpose of The Youth Drug Detoxification and Stabilization Act is to assist youth (ages 12 to 17) who have severe drug or alcohol use that puts them at risk of further harm to themselves or someone else due to their use to receive treatment.
• If a youth’s parent, person with close personal relationship, or youth worker believe the youth is at risk due to their substance use, they can make an appointment with a provincial court judge who may issue a warrant to have the youth be conveyed for assessment to the Secure Youth Detox Unit located at the Regina General Hospital; the evidence must be presented to a judge of the Provincial Court. It may also be valuable to consult with your closest Saskatchewan Health Authority Mental Health and Addictions office, find the closest office to you.
• If successful, a warrant will be issued to apprehend the youth who are then taken to a physician for assessment which may lead to involuntary treatment if the youth is:
  • suffering from severe drug addiction or drug abuse and requires detention to facilitate detoxification and stabilization;
  • is likely to cause harm to themselves or to others; or
  • to suffer substantial mental or physical deterioration, if they are not detained in a detoxification facility; and is either:
    • unable to fully understand and to make an informed decision respecting their need to detoxify or stabilize; or
    • unable or unwilling to take steps to begin recovery from drug addiction or drug abuse or to reduce the risk of harm to themselves or other persons.
  • If these criteria are met, the individual can be detained for a five-day period and repeated for up to 15 days if the criteria continues to be met. There is one unit for these services located at the Regina General Hospital.

More information on the process can be found on the Courts of Saskatchewan website.