Detoxification in Barrie
There is only one Detoxification center in the City of Barrie Ontario it is an affiliate program offered through the Royal Victoria Hospital. It is at an off site location and at times has a short waiting list for services. Detoxification consists of 5-14 days of hospital like care to ensure that acute withdrawal symptoms are treated in a safe manor there is little to no therapy provided people generally leave detox with none of the tools required to maintain their sobriety. There is a lack of Therapy based treatment options available to the residents of Barrie and the surrounding area. In order to have an assessment done quite often the wait times are in the six week range to see a counselor in order to prepare a treatment plan and get on the waiting list to receive residential or outpatient therapy once on the waiting list for residential treatment one can expect to encounter wait times of two weeks to two months and up for a bed.
As opiate abuse specifically that of Oxycontin was on the rise completely unchecked through much of 2012 and the previous years addiction levels skyrocketed in most communities around Ontario. In 2012 Oxycontin was pulled from the market and reformulated to create a version of the drug which was much more difficult to abuse and had to be taken orally and is nearly impossible to inject. This reformulation of Oxycontin left most communities primed full of addicts who could not find the drugs they needed to maintain their addictions so many turned to Heroin as a substitute and even more have gotten on the Methadone program in an effort manage their dependence to opiates. Unfortunately once on the Methadone Program addicts are no longer amicable to the detox centers for two reasons 1 that they are currently being treated by a physician for their addiction and 2 that the methadone is much too dangerous to bring people off of once a dependence has developed they really need to weened down gradually.
Alcoholics are still typically the largest users of detoxification services as detox from alcohol can create the worst side effects such as seizures, heart attack, stroke, temporary dementia like state.