Canadian Mental Health Week is May 5th to 11th, with this year’s theme being Unmasking Mental Health.
In collaboration with Gastech Solutions Heating & Cooling, myFM is helping to “Unmask Mental Health” in our community, by highlighting some of the supports available to residents of St. Thomas and Elgin County.
The Annex on Talbot Street in St. Thomas is an addictions resource centre, an outreach project of The Grace Cafe, located next door. It is dedicated to helping individuals address their substance abuse in a safe, compassionate, and non-judgemental environment at no cost to those seeking help.
It is estimated that 10 per cent of the province’s population will deal with substance addiction at some point in their lives, and many lack the support and resources needed for treatment and recovery.
Tom Cruikshank is an addiction counsellor at The Annex, a position he has held for about 18 months.
We asked him how he become involved in this field.
Cruikshank is a CMHA employee and he talked about the relationship between addiction and mental health.
The Annex strives to positively impact the lives of individuals facing the many challenges of substance dependency with addiction support groups, substance abuse resources, addiction counselling, and more.
The Annex also assists in facilitating access to secondary needs such as medical, dental, and mental wellness services, legal and financial assistance, and housing.
He elaborated on the resources available to those who reach out to The Annex.
Cruikshank has personally dealt with addiction and with that lived experience, which can help build trust with those who access the services of The Annex.
“Yeah, peer support’s huge. They’ve done a lot of studies on a lot of programming, and it’s why now you have a lot of organizations implementing peer support workers into it because it raises the success of the program.”
The Annex offers a wide range of addiction services including:
Addiction support groups; peer support resources; referrals for medically assisted treatment; out-patient and group addictions counselling; personal and social services advocacy; addiction education services; and aftercare support and recovery services.
Another critical service is keeping tabs on individuals – many of whom have no fixed address – when they are on waiting lists for treatment beds.
As to an often slippery slope to addiction, Cruikshank referenced a scenario he has witnessed many, many times.
“Somebody gets injured, they get put on a lot of perks (Percocet, a prescription medication to treat moderate to severe pain).
“Back in the day, it was oxys (OxyContin), and they created an opioid addict.
“So that story is something I’ve heard on repeat a million times. It’s not only people on the street in which I work with. Very, very wealthy people started with addiction.
“And oftentimes, that would be the Number 1 story that I hear: an injury led to painkillers, painkiller led to addiction.”
For more information on The Annex, you can visit theannexcentre.ca/ or phone 226-896-0080.
Written by Ian McCallum
