By: Natalie Cooke, News Writer
Guy Felicella, a recovery advocate, and Dr. Monty Ghosh, an addiction physician, are proposing a plan to offer a stipend of $20 a day for people to enter a 90-day rehabilitation facility. Felicella explained that a $600 stipend per month would offer people opportunities to improve their lives. Felicella said, “It’s very tough to be in treatment. It’s even that much tougher to be there broke.”
“Self-care costs money; going to the gym costs money,” along with buying clothes and “feeling good about yourself,” said Felicella. He believes if we ignore the self-care aspect of recovery, “it’s going to fail more often than it’s successful.”
Felicella noted incentivized rehabilitation is cheaper than the total cumulative costs that substance use has on Canada. Expenses related to substance use such as ambulances, justice costs, health costs, health complications, public safety costs, involuntary mandatory treatment costs, and more, are more expensive than a $20 stipend per day. The Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms reported substance use cost Candians nearly $46 billion in 2017; this included $13.1 billion for healthcare costs, $20 billion for low productivity costs, $9.2 billion in justice costs, and $3.6 billion for other costs including research and prevention of damage.
Felicella noted there are aspects of rehabilitation programs he would change to become more ideal. “I would like to provide more on the life skill side of things, the employment side [ . . . ] and work on the traumas that people have endured throughout their lives, so that they can feel more self-worth.” He explained many people come out of rehabilitation without the life skills and emotional recovery that they need to move on. Rehabilitation allows people to stay away from drugs, but if one’s life is still challenging after rehabilitation, it may allow them to relapse and use drugs again.
“If all other social determinants of health aren’t addressed, such as housing and employment, you will find it extremely challenging for people to move forward,” said Felicella. “Why would you go to a 90-day treatment program, only to wind up in a shelter after you’ve completed the program?”
The ministry of mental health and addictions told Global News, “Since 2017, the government’s priority has been to build a system of mental health and substance use care that can provide treatment for people when they make the courageous decision to get help. This includes creating as many opportunities as possible for people to access the voluntary system of care.”
For more information on the incentivized rehabilitation proposal, visit Global News.
