New site officially open for safe sobering and withdrawal program
Mino Ginawenjigewin, says Reena Larabee, means “wrapping arms around them and bringing them into a place of care.”
St. Joseph’s Care Group unveiled the official name for its new safe sobering and withdrawal management site, where Larabee is manager of traditional healing, during a grand opening celebration Friday.
“The very first thing to really acknowledge is that the language is connected to our land, the territory that we live and work and operate on. And that’s the land of the Anishinaabe. So, having our care centre have an Anishinaabe name really honours our people that all share this land together, but also the first peoples of this land. From what the elders have described to us is really about that act of, of showing good care and love and support for people,” Larabee said.
The Anishinaabe connection doesn’t end with the name. Through N’doo’owe Binesi, St. Joseph’s Indigenous health division, Mino Ginawenjigewin is fully integrated into a cultural space centred around healing and ceremony for Anishinaabe clients.
In September 2024, the Ontario government provided $2.9-million to St. Joseph’s Care Group to expand and enhance the group’s addiction services.
Beginning with relocating the withdrawal management program to 500 Oliver Road, the larger space allowed for three temporary withdrawal management beds to become permanent, bringing the total to 25.
Combined with 15 safe sobering beds, Mino Ginawenjigewin provides wrap-around support in one location.
“This is really a continuum of services at this centre. It doesn’t just happen at the site. We actually go out and bring people in if they are suffering on the streets or maybe in an encampment. We bring them in with our cultural practitioners. They get some ceremony. They get some Indigenous services if they are Indigenous. And sometimes even our non-Indigenous clients like those services,” Janine Black, chief executive officer of St. Joseph’s Care Group, told Newswatch.
She said people can use the safe sobering beds, and from there, they can choose to move into the withdrawal management program and get medical support with their withdrawal symptoms.
The expansion also enabled the return of a rapid-access addiction medicine clinic, so people can move onto a path of treatment for addictions.
“The impact is life-changing … Sometimes it’s just an impact for the evening or a few hours, that somebody can sober safely and do it in a place where they know they’re welcome and safe, and sometimes it transforms their entire life,” Black said.
“They transform their entire life by going through all of the things that are offered to them. It can be anywhere along that spectrum, the impact it has on an individual. It may be that’s the fifth time they come to safe sobering, they decide I want to take this a bit further.”
Mino Ginawenjigewin is the result of the community’s healthcare organizations coming together to provide a circle of care through multiple services in the city, said Thunder Bay–Atikokan MPP Kevin Holland.
“The first one we saw was the STAR program with Superior North EMS that has a dedicated ambulance that supports those who are suffering from acute addictions. And we saw the youth wellness hub that opened up just a few weeks ago, and that really fills that gap for the 12- to 24-year-olds. Today with the safe sobering site being opened up and being named. To see those three programs, I think there was a thought that we’d be lucky if we got one or two, and now we have the three,” he said.
Holland said these types of programs are not a “one and done,” but a continuous process of what the region needs to continue on a pathway forward.
“I’ve told all the agencies here that I’m here. I’m committed to continuing to work with them as we continue to find that path forward and provide the care that’s needed,” he said. – tbnewswatch.com
article website here
….“The very first thing to really acknowledge is that the language is connected to our land, the territory that we live and work and operate on. And that’s the land of the Anishinaabe. So, having our care centre have an Anishinaabe name really honours our people that all share this land together, but also the first peoples of this land. From what the elders have described to us is really about that act of, of showing good care and love and support for people,” Larabee said.
The Anishinaabe connection doesn’t end with the name. Through N’doo’owe Binesi, St. Joseph’s Indigenous health division, Mino Ginawenjigewin is fully integrated into a cultural space centred around healing and ceremony for Anishinaabe clients….
That and the fact that most of their ‘clients’ are FNs people. Probably has a lot to do with funding. There seems to be a bottomless pit of cash available when it comes to funding anything Indigenous. In return we get? Exactly.
I suspect that is how the ‘mistake-on-the lake- art gallery got its government funding. Will it have an Indigenous name? What are the odds?
