PROGRAM UPDATE

AFM Program Update 2014 The Program Update is a new AFM initiative. The Program Update is intended to provide a forum for keeping staff up to date on program activities across the organization, fostering a greater sense of belonging to the broader organization, as well as providing another tool for learning from one another and building on successes in each program area.

AFM North

 During the past quarter we have opened the Withdrawal Management Unit (WMU) at Eaglewood with about fifty percent occupancy and have been able to accommodate many clients who may not otherwise have achieved sobriety to enter the residential program. All but one so far has finished the residential 28 day after a stay in the WMU.  Addictions Awareness Week went very well across the north with community committees in many areas organizing youth, family and community events to draw awareness to addictions issues in the north.  A surge in impaired driver assessments has kept staff busy across the north with additional support needed in some areas to keep up with demand.  The latest round of acupuncture training has resulted in an increase in access and acupuncture offering in community as well as residential programs. We will have 17 new staff certified by late January.  This quarter we had our first two staff reach Motivational Interviewing (MI) proficiency, along with adding a new MI staff coach in the north.  Services to Wabowden, Lynn Lake and Gillam have been revamped with new staff travelling to those communities with follow up telehealth appointments during the month.

Brandon and Surrounding Area

 Parkwood’s residential programs have made some changes this quarter toward a more client centred approach including: o Led by a group of Residential Care Workers, intake information (written and verbal) was revised to be more welcoming; o Residential Counselors are now assigned to clients prior to treatment and an initial individual counseling appointment time is provided in their orientation folder so that they know they are connected to a counselor upon arrival; and o A movie and game night has been added to the residential programs following a particularly challenging day of programming to give clients practice at healthy coping, down time etc. without alcohol, substance use or gambling.  The unit protocol for maintaining the wait list for the residential program has been revised resulting in bed dates being offered more quickly. The unit protocol has also been formalized in writing to ensure consistency and fairness.  This quarter the Brandon Methadone program began using web cam/video conferencing with clients who live a great distance from Brandon to facilitate regular contact with stable clients without requiring them to drive 6 hours for a 15 minute appointment.  We have reformatted the Family Awareness program from an 8 week program to a 4 week program, allowing us to offer it more frequently. This has resulted in much higher intake numbers (from 8 to 21 clients on average), much lower attrition rates and evaluation forms that reflect greater satisfaction with length of program, accessibility and content.

AFM Program Update 2014  The Client Services Manager for the area is involved in a new initiative, the Westman Justice Roundtable, that brings together judges, crown attorneys, probation officers and mental health representatives to discuss how the criminal justice system could better serve mutual clients in the area.  We have created a Workplace Safety & Health Orientation (2.5 hour training) that has been facilitated once and scheduled quarterly as needed to ensure that all staff are trained in a timely manner.

Clinical Support, Knowledge Exchange Centre and Staff Development

 Knowledge Exchange team fully staffed with Sheri Fandrey as Knowledge Exchange Lead; Ron Linklater, Kathleen Keating-Toews, Lee Garfinkel and Brent Anderson as Knowledge Brokers; and Alina Trocaru as the Resource Technician.  Plans are underway for renovations of the Knowledge Exchange Centre to accommodate the new staff configuration and refresh the space.  We will organize specialized Knowledge Exchange training for the Knowledge Exchange team as well as the provincial Prevention and Education Consultants on February 19, 2014 – a Prevention and Education Consultant Training and Networking Day.  We are working to fill the Staff Development Specialists and the Clinical Specialist positions before the end of the fiscal year.  The new Client Experience Survey will be an opportunity for our clients to give us valuable feedback and provide additional data to help us ensure our services are meeting client needs. Our data and evaluation staff maintain our data and make it accessible so that it can be utilized to improve AFM services.  New practice guidelines are being worked on – one related to Text Messages to Clients and another related to Spirituality. These will be valuable in guiding us to maintain boundaries within our client-centred philosophy.

Eastern and Central Manitoba Programs (formerly known as Impaired Driver Program, Gambling, Methadone Intervention and Needle Exchange Service, Satellite and Winnipeg Drug Treatment Court)

 The Satellite Team has been strengthening partnerships with mental health, primary care and other community partners such as Community Financial Counselling Services.  In recognition of Seniors’ and Elders’ month (October), the Problem Gambling Team jointly hosted with Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries two Open Houses for Older Adults at each of the Winnipeg casinos to promote AFM’s services as well as the services of several of our community partners such as Community Financial Counselling Services. Over 1,250 guests attended the open houses.  AFM played a significant role in the planning and delivery of the Manitoba First Nations Casino trust Regional Responsible Gambling Forum hosted by the National Native Alcohol & Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP). AFM presented on AFM’s problem gambling services and traditional healing ways. The Problem Gambling Team also facilitated the Understanding Gambling and Problem Gambling Behaviour course for 120 NNADAP staff at the conference.

AFM Program Update 2014  M.I.N.E. has been revising its wait list maintenance protocols including introducing a new electronic scoring system that prioritizes the client during the initial phone intake, allowing for faster access for high risk individuals.  Pharmacy students, a hospital physician resident and a physician in training for a Methadone exemption have been attending M.I.N.E. for educational purposes.  The Impaired Driving Program has been actively exploring how to improve client services by examining impaired driver programs around the globe and gathering resources on evidence-based practices in the field. This information base will be used in the future to update and revised our client programming.  Some client-centered changes have been made to our ‘Reducing the Risk’ program in an effort to improve accessibility, meet individualized needs, and make services more equitable across the region: 1. AFM rehabilitation counsellors in our regional satellite offices have been trained to deliver the ‘Reducing the Risk’ program to impaired driver clients in their own communities/areas. 2. The orientation session in Winnipeg is now done on an individualized basis rather than a group format in order to further develop the therapeutic relationship between client and counsellor.  A provincial IDP networking day is scheduled for March 2014. More details to follow.

James Toal Centre

 The James Toal Centre team has been actively preparing for our move to the new River Point Centre.  The target date is April 2014 and as that date approaches, planning is becoming more concrete. Since late August a team has been working together weekly to move the project forward and to ensure the input of JTC staff.  Early in River Point Centre’s development staff were consulted about how to design the building to meet the needs of the programs and clients and we are now looking forward to moving into a state of the art facility. We hope our clients' experience will be improved thanks to the expansion of the residential space to allow for single and double occupancy and improved accessibility and program delivery features.  River Point Centre will house services of three co-located organizations: AFM, Main Street Project and the Behavioural Health Foundation.  AFM Programming at River Point Centre will include: the Provincial Addictions Centralized Intake and Information service; a ten bed Recovery Readiness unit which will work to support clients who may have some unique needs to address prior to entering a formal treatment program; 30 self- contained suites for abstinence based housing, the building owned by Manitoba Housing and operated by AFM; expanded men’s residential treatment services; and men’s community based treatment services.  JTC is continuing to explore partnerships with other helping resources, most notably the WRHA's new Mental Health Crisis Response Centre and the Winding River Treatment Centre in the Headingly Corrections Centre.

AFM Program Update 2014 Parkland

 AFM staff provided several schools across Parkland with educational presentations on alcohol, drugs and problem gambling during MAAW. Over 500 students attended these presentations.  Students from various schools had the opportunity to create artwork and messages about drinking/drugging and driving on liquor bags for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries.  AFM staff in Dauphin are now facilitating an evening group for gamblers.  Mental health workers as well as resident doctors have been attending our orientation day with staff and clients at Willard Monson House, to educate themselves further on services that we provide in the Parkland.

Women and Family – Winnipeg

 The role of Intake Facilitator, which had been piloted and introduced as a term, has been made full time permanent. This role fills the purpose of helping clients more effectively and efficiently navigate the intake process, and provides them with a consistent warm and friendly welcome. The Intake Facilitator is also instrumental in helping us manage wait lists and appointments.  In response to the cessation of the on-call physician for Winnipeg for evenings and weekends, a team came together and developed alternative solutions for issues and problems that were previously called in to the on-call physician. This included, among other things, a revision of the way that medications are dispensed at River House, resulting in improved efficiencies for clients and staff.

Youth (Eastern and Central Manitoba)

 The Youth Community based program had a week of internal training during the month of November. The training week included workshops and discussions regarding: o maintaining a client centred approach (guided by the strategic plan); o effective communication in the work place (helping staff to appreciate the differing working styles of each other better and communicate more effectively); o building awareness of resources available through the Knowledge Exchange Centre and other AFM program areas; o being culturally and socially sensitive in the programs that are carried out and are available to us from within the Winnipeg community.  Also in the youth area a new project, The FASD Addictions Services project, run by AFM and partnered with Healthy Child Manitoba Office and Manitoba Youth Corrections, is being developed. Protocols have been worked on, a framework of the program has been created and the programs philosophy and process is being written. The program is aiming to begin taking in clients by early February 2014.  The Compass team has developed an implementation plan focusing on strategies to “keep MI Alive” within day-to-day operation. This past summer the team revisited the plan and made some amendments focusing on the MI review at weekly staff meetings being more concrete (introducing an “MI Tip Jar”) and in addition, creating opportunities for regular, more intensive MI focus.

AFM Program Update 2014  This fall a system of follow-up phone calls with Compass clients who leave prior to completion was implemented. Objectives include: o To provide clients who choose to leave the program a second opportunity to return and/or encouragement to continue making changes and meeting with their community counsellors. o To provide clients who are asked to leave the program with encouragement to continue making changes and meeting with their referral agents. o To gather information from clients who choose to leave prior to completion regarding: why they chose to leave, what was helpful and what didn’t work well at Compass.  This information will help guide program changes to improve services and potentially aid in client retention.

AFM Program Update 2014