Families and friends of those who have lost someone to overdose gathered at the Residents in Recovery office, shared memories of their loved ones, and walked down to City Hall, where crosses were set up to raise awareness for those lost to addiction. Jeannette Benoit-Leipert
Approximately 803 Albertans died from an overdose in the first five months of 2023.
In recognition of this, a vigil was held last Thursday to raise awareness and allow families to remember loved ones lost to addiction.
Tyler Lorenz, executive director of the Residents in Recovery Society, thinks there’s room for improvement when it comes to government-funded treatment for those battling addiction.
“They’re still looking at brick-and-mortar treatment programs, I mean they’re not really utilizing non-profit community organizations like us. They’re still focused on the six big cities. They’re not really looking beyond that,” said Lorenz.
“The only exception would be the Thorpe … it’s only a 42-day treatment program. When you look at the grand scheme of things in a recovery continuum is such a small piece that … it is necessary in many cases but certainly not all, and it’s certainly not the solution to the problem.”
Founded in 2018, Residents in Recovery supports those who have struggled with mental health and addiction through several different programs.
“We have pre and post-treatment sober living, we have an intensive outpatient day program, and then we have a family inpatient treatment program where families that have children at risk of apprehension, they can come into our program together with their family and do treatment together,” said Lorenz.
He says the overdose numbers continue to rise, and it’s a problem in Lloydminster just like any of the bigger cities.
“In so many cases, our loved ones are disappearing at record numbers due to overdose and we can’t forget this is not an isolated incident … if there were 803 lives lost and it had nothing to do with addiction, there would be major dollars put towards something like that,” said Lorenz.
“I mean, just because an individual’s got an addiction—the funding is just not there; the support is just not there. It’s a complex problem.”
Possibly made more complex by the fact Lloydminster is on a provincial border.
“In Lloydminster, Alberta residents have no funding for sober living, for programs like ours in our community, because of the Border City issue,” said Lorenz, adding there have been improvements made when it comes to harm-reduction.
“There’s lots of harm-reduction supplies available in the community. It’s getting better and Sask Health has heard our concerns with that. So things are improving.”
Lorenz said the vigil gives people a chance to remember their loved ones, whether they lost someone recently or years ago.
“It gives individuals the opportunity to come, maybe say a few words and really honour their loved ones. It’s a reminder that they’re not forgotten.”
