Ridgewood making changes to its addiction treatment program in Saint John

Ridgewood Addiction and Mental Health Services will welcome the first clients next week to a revamped addictions treatment program. 

Instead of a structured, group-centred approach, Ridgewood's new "concurrent model rehabilitation treatment program" will be individualized, longer, and include more services, like those for mental health issues. 

The first four clients will arrive next week at the 12-bed unit, said Holly Richards, the nurse manager for the new program.

"We're not bringing everybody in on Day One because it's the rolling admission model," she explained.

The plan is to gradually fill the other eight beds in the coming weeks and always keep the beds full. 

Under the old program, which wrapped up its final session last week, all 12 beds filled up on the same day with either all men or all women — with the gender-specific groups alternating. 

The group-centred program progressed for 28 days on a set schedule for everyone. If people dropped out along the way, their beds would sit empty until the next program began. 

"By moving towards this new model, if somebody leaves for any reason, then once that bed's available, we can bring in the next person on the wait list, which is going to move things quicker for clients that we serve," said Richards.

In the last group that ended last week, for example, there were four empty beds by the end of the 28 days. Richards said there were empty beds in almost every session.

"There's going to be less of a wait time, so we're going to be able to flow through that wait list way more fluidly, and where we're not gender specific anymore — previously you had to wait two months for the next men's group or two months for the next women's group."

The program is also moving from 28 days to 90 days, depending on the person's needs. Richards said a team of professionals will work with the individual to determine when they're ready to leave the program. 

She said the government has provided additional funding to add new professionals to that team. Ridgewood will now have a psychiatrist, psychologist, and occupational therapist on site. That's in addition to more nurses on staff. 

"Our goal is to be able to treat any mental illness that a client has, and any addiction issues a client has concurrently. So that's the goal. So we'll be able to take more complex clients than we have in the past with this new program," said Richards.

"When they come in, we'll be building a personalized care plan and they'll be identifying what goals they wish to reach during the program. So they could reach that goal within 30 days. It could take longer. The client's the driver in this new program. It's what they need."