Article content In the midst of an opioid crisis in Quebec , the McGill University Health Centre and the Quebec Health Ministry have decided to close the MUHC’s day addiction program — a decision that is already stirring an intense backlash, The Gazette has learned. In an internal memo, dated June 12, MUHC officials announced after the closing in December, “complex cases will be referred to the CHUM,” the French-language Centre hospitalier de l’université de Montréal. Mental-health and addiction-recovery advocates met with the MUHC on Thursday in a desperate bid to persuade Quebec’s largest hospital network to reconsider — to no avail.
“I think it’s a disgrace,” Ella Amir , executive director of AMI-Quebec, said in an interview on Friday. “This is a pretty unique program. It’s based mostly on volunteers.
To me, this is really a model for (substance) recovery. Recovery is not happening in a psychiatrist’s office. It happens in the community.
And I think that what these mentors and mentees are doing is really remarkable. “So I think it would be an absolute shame if this program were to close,” Amir added. In the June 12 memo, Colleen Tim, director of multidisciplinary services, and Dr.
Karine Igartua, chief of psychiatry, acknowledged closing the addiction day program may give rise to “grief, anxiety and anger.” But they also suggested the closing could engender feelings of “excitement and hope about new opportunities.” “As of last we.
