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Alberta

Shovels in the ground for Red Deer recovery community

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Construction is starting on the new 75-bed recovery community in Red Deer, which will provide long-term holistic residential treatment for people with addiction and mental health challenges.

Alberta’s government is building for the future with the construction of the Red Deer recovery community. Recovery communities, also known as therapeutic communities, are used in more than 65 countries around the world. This is the first of its kind to break ground in Alberta.

“The Red Deer recovery community will be the first of its kind to be built in Alberta. Alberta’s government is taking tangible steps to ensure that Albertans across the province have access to treatment by building recovery communities, funding over 4,000 more annual treatment spaces and eliminating user fees for all publicly funded treatment.”

Mike Ellis, Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions

“With a location identified earlier this year and a contractor now in place, the Red Deer recovery community is moving steadily forward. We appreciate the collaboration of multiple levels of government and central Albertans for their support of this life-saving facility.”

Prasad Panda, Minister of Infrastructure

The Red Deer recovery community is being built on a 10-acre parcel of land near the Chiles Industrial Park, adjacent to Highway 2A, and is expected to create 136 jobs during construction.

Construction is expected to be completed by fall 2022. The recovery community will start admitting clients soon after that. Once operational, the recovery community will create more than 100 jobs.

Recovery communities are a form of long-term residential treatment that focus on supporting people who are pursuing recovery. Recovery is seen as a gradual, ongoing process of cognitive change through clinical and peer interventions aimed at improving a person’s overall well-being.

New recovery communities will be fully funded by Alberta’s government. Any Albertan seeking recovery can access the life-saving treatment services that will be provided.

“This recovery community is more than simply a building – it is a symbol of hope that our community and province desperately needs. Helping people enter recovery from addiction and lead a more fulfilling, productive life helps us all. Thank you to the provincial government for adding this support to the City of Red Deer.”

Ken Johnston, mayor, City of Red Deer

“People struggling with addiction and mental health challenges in Red Deer need a place where they can pursue long-term recovery. I’m proud that our government is ensuring that, through a holistic approach, the people of Red Deer have access to treatment and recovery.”

Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Education and MLA for Red Deer-North

“I’m excited the Red Deer location is the first recovery community in Alberta to get shovels in the ground. Helping people end their reliance on substances affects everyone around them as well as the community as a whole. I can’t wait to see the recovery community in action.”

Jason Stephan, MLA for Red Deer-South

Alberta’s Recovery Plan is helping Albertans access life-saving addiction and mental health-related prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery resources. A $140-million investment over four years is supporting the addition of 4,000 new publicly funded addiction treatment spaces; the elimination of daily user fees for publicly funded residential addiction treatment; a new patient matching tool Recovery Access Alberta; and services to reduce harm, such as the Digital Overdose Response system (DORS), the introduction of a nasal naloxone pilot and the expansion of opioid agonist therapy.

Quick facts

  • Construction of the Red Deer 75-bed recovery community is expected to create 136 construction jobs.
  • Synergy Projects Ltd. was the successful construction vendor selected through a standard government request for proposal process.
  • The construction contract price is approximately $20 million, including the initial $5-million investment made in 2020 through Alberta’s Recovery Plan.
  • Contact 811 Health Link or Alberta 211 for information about addiction treatments and supports available throughout the province.
  • Albertans struggling with opioid use anywhere in the province can call the Virtual Opioid Dependency Program seven days per week at 1-844-383-7688 to access same-day treatment.

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Alberta

On gender, Alberta is following the science

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Aristotle Foundation Home

 

 

By J. Edward Les, MD

 

Despite falling into disrepute in recent years, “follow the science” remains our best shot at getting at the truth of the physical sciences.

But science, if we are to place our trust in it, must be properly defined and understood; it is at its essence an ever-changing process, a relentless pursuit of truth that is never “settled,” and one that is unafraid to discard old hypotheses in the face of new evidence.

And it is in this light—in the unforgiving glare of honest science—that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s three new legislative initiatives around gender policy are properly understood, notwithstanding the opprobrium they’ve attracted from critics.

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, proposes to prohibit the prescription of puberty blockers and cross-gender hormones for the treatment of gender dysphoria to youth aged 15 and under. It would allow minors aged 16 and 17 to begin puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender “reassignment” and “affirmation” purposes only with parental, physician, and psychologist approval. The bill also prohibits health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.

Bill 27, the Education Amendment Act, seeks to enshrine parents’ rights to be notified if their kids change their names/pronouns at school, and it gives parents the right to “opt in” to what sort of gender and sex education their kids are exposed to in school.

And Bill 29, the Fairness and Safety in Sports Act, is designed to protect females in sports by ensuring that women and girls can compete in biological female-only divisions, while supporting the formation of co-ed opportunities to support transgender athletes.

Each of these initiatives is entirely reasonable, given what we know of the science underpinning “gender care,” and of the undeniable advantages that a male physique confers upon biological males competing in sports.

The notion that the trifecta of puberty blockers, cross-gender hormones, and revisionist surgery is a pathway to good health was a hypothesis initially devised by Dutch researchers, who were looking to ease the discomfort of transgender adults struggling with incongruence between their physical appearance and their gender identities. As a hypothesis, it was perhaps reasonable.

But as the UK’s Cass Review exposed in withering detail last spring, its premises were wholly unsupported by evidence, and its implementation has caused grievous harm for youth. As Finnish psychiatrist Riittakerttu Kaltiala, one of the architects of that country’s gender program, put it last year, “Gender affirming care is dangerous. I know, because I helped pioneer it.”

It’s no accident, then, that numerous European jurisdictions have pulled back from the “gender affirming care” pathway for youth, such as Sweden, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

It makes perfect sense that Canadians should be cautious as well, and that parents should be apprised if their children are being exposed to these theories at school and informed if their kids are caught up in their premises.

Yet the Canadian medical establishment has remained curiously intransigent on this issue, continuing to insist that the drug-and-surgery-based gender-affirming care model is rooted in evidence.

Premier Smith was asked by a reporter last month whether decisions on these matters aren’t best left to discussions between doctors and their patients; to which she replied:

“I would say doctors aren’t always right.”

Which is rather an understatement, as anyone familiar with the opioid drug crisis can attest, or as anyone acquainted with the darker corners of medical history knows: the frontal lobotomy saga, the thalidomide catastrophe, and the “recovered memories of sexual abuse” scandal are just a few examples of where doctors didn’t “get it right.”

As physicians, we advocate strongly for self-regulation and for the principle that medical decisions are private matters between physicians and patients. But self-regulation isn’t infallible, and when it fails it can be very much in the interests of the public—and especially of patients—for others to intervene, whether they be journalists, lawyers, or political leaders.

The trans discussion shouldn’t be a partisan issue, although it certainly has become one in Canada. It’s worth noting that Britain’s freshly elected Labour Party chose to carry on with the cautious approach adopted by the preceding administration in light of the Cass Review.

Premier Smith’s new polices are eminently sensible and in line with the stance taken by our European colleagues. None of her initiatives are “anti-trans.” Instead, they are pro-child, pro-women, and pro-athlete, and it’s difficult to see how anyone can quibble with that.

Dr. J. Edward Les, MD, is a pediatrician in Calgary, senior fellow at the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, and co-author of Teenagers, Children, and Gender Transition Policy: A Comparison of Transgender Medical Policy for Minors in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

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Alberta

Alberta mother accuses health agency of trying to vaccinate son against her wishes

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

 

Alberta Health Services has been accused of attempting to vaccinate a child in school against his parent’s wishes.  

On November 6, Alberta Health Services staffers visited Edmonton Hardisty School where they reportedly attempted to vaccinate a grade 6 student despite his parents signing a form stating that they did not wish for him to receive the vaccines.  

 

“It is clear they do not prioritize parental rights, and in not doing so, they traumatize students,” the boy’s mother Kerri Findling told the Counter Signal. 

During the school visit, AHS planned to vaccinate sixth graders with the HPV and hepatitis B vaccines. Notably, both HPV and hepatitis B are vaccines given to prevent diseases normally transmitted sexually.  

Among the chief concerns about the HPV vaccine has been the high number of adverse reactions reported after taking it, including a case where a 16 year-old Australian girl was made infertile due to the vaccine.  

Additionally, in 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration received reports of 28 deaths associated with the HPV vaccine. Among the 6,723 adverse reactions reported that year, 142 were deemed life-threatening and 1,061 were considered serious.   

Children whose parents had written “refused” on their forms were supposed to return to the classroom when the rest of the class was called into the vaccination area.  

However, in this case, Findling alleged that AHS staffers told her son to proceed to the vaccination area, despite seeing that she had written “refused” on his form. 

When the boy asked if he could return to the classroom, as he was certain his parents did not intend for him to receive the shots, the staff reportedly said “no.” However, he chose to return to the classroom anyway.    

Following his parents’ arrival at the school, AHS claimed the incident was a misunderstanding due to a “new hire,” attesting that the mistake would have been caught before their son was vaccinated.   

“If a student leaves the vaccination center without receiving the vaccine, it should be up to the parents to get the vaccine at a different time, if they so desire, not the school to enforce vaccination on behalf of AHS,” Findling declared.  

Findling’s story comes just a few months after Alberta Premier Danielle Smith promised a new Bill of Rights affirming “God-given” parental authority over children. 

A draft version of a forthcoming Alberta Bill of Rights provided to LifeSiteNews includes a provision beefing up parental rights, declaring the “freedom of parents to make informed decisions concerning the health, education, welfare and upbringing of their children.” 

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