Thank you, Mr. Johns.
One concern I have is that there is no standardization around treatment programs across our country, let alone across our province or our own jurisdictions. Some of them are medically supported and medically assisted. This includes sites that provide buprenorphine and methadone, which are evidence-based medicines. There are others that do not provide this and sometimes do forced detox, for example, for opioid use disorder and don't provide opioid agonist treatments. This can lead to a loss of tolerance and risk of relapse once they get discharged from these facilities.
I think there is a need to standardize this across the country. We need to make sure it's evidence-based and evidence-focused. It needs to have a combination of medically assisted treatments, which includes medications such as buprenorphine and methadone. For alcohol, there's naltrexone, for instance, or acamprosate.
There's also a need for an evidence-based system around mental health supports, as well as cognitive behavioural therapy, for example. These are other added layers that we need to have to support this.
It doesn't just end there. We need to also address the social determinants of health, as Dr. Patel alluded to.
Again, there are no standards around this. There's a lack of competency at times with some of these facilities. They vary. Some of them are excellent and some of them are not so great. Some of them are private for-profit and some of them are public. I've seen great private for-profit ones and poor private for-profit ones and vice versa for the public system.