Thursday’s Alberta Government news release announcing the official opening of so-called Lakeview Recovery Community in a rural area west of Edmonton included the intriguing tidbit that the facility will also be home to the “Recovery Training Institute of Alberta.”
“The RTIA is a provincial training hub for those employed within a recovery community or other treatment centre in Alberta,” the news release confidently stated. “It will provide an environment for hands-on learning with full immersion into the work of addiction treatment.
“With the RTIA, Alberta’s government is creating a workforce of people who are well-educated and trained in the sector,” that section of the release immediately concluded.
A short quote attributed to RTIA Executive Director Bill Caldwell of Vancouver Island added that “for people to succeed in recovery, it is important they have a team surrounding them, which is what we are creating at the Recovery Training Institute of Alberta.”
“We are helping create a culture of recovery across the entire province, thanks to the work done at the RTIA and the support of Alberta’s government,” Mr. Caldwell’s canned quote concluded.
Obviously, this interesting digression from the main theme of the release raises more questions than it answers.
For example, what is the legal structure of the RTIA? Is it recognized under the Post-Secondary Learning Act or any other provincial legislation or regulation? Is it incorporated as a company or a society?
Who drafted its curriculum? Are its courses overseen by an accredited Alberta university as was the practice back in the day when a plethora of private religious colleges operated on the fringes of academia out here in Wild Rose Country? (Almost certainly not, but we don’t really know.)
Don’t look for answers in the news release. A note seeking more information to Addiction Minister Dan Williams’ press secretary went unanswered yesterday.
Clearly the RTIA’s function is to create a workforce empowered to act only within the ideological constraints of the “Alberta Recovery Model” championed by the Smith Government, a phrase said to have been coined by Carson McPherson, president of ROSC Solutions Group Inc., the private company hired by the government to operate the Lakeview Recovery Community.
Indeed, on its website the RTIA proclaims that “we envision elevating the Alberta Model to global acclaim.”
If there is a corporate or contractual connection between ROSC Solutions and the RTIA, this too remains unanswered.
While it is clear the RTIA offers instruction online and some “recovery coach academies” at locations in Alberta, it is less clear who will be instructing these courses, whether a formal credential will be awarded upon a student’s completion of a course of program, or what tuition will be for the eight-week online program described in the website.
A page on the RTIA website describes the entity’s faculty.
Of the 10 individuals named on the page, one of whom is identified only as a team member, five appear to live outside Canada (one for a spell in the U.S Army’s maximum-security prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas), three and possibly four like Mr. Caldwell hail from Vancouver Island, and one from Saskatchewan.
Three have appointments at well-known academic institutions; five are connected to the corporate addiction recovery businesses, mostly on Vancouver Island; two appear to be on the U.S. inspirational speaking and TV expert circuit; and two are of former employees of Cedars Cobble Hill, the abstinence-based private addiction treatment centre on Vancouver Island that also once employed Mr. Caldwell, ROSC Solutions CEO Carson McPherson, and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s chief of staff, Marshall Smith.
So this “faculty” seems more like an advisory board or council than a faculty, in the sense of the term as used at a college or university. Will any of these faculty members actually teach courses at the RTIA?
Who selected the faculty members, and what was the criteria for their selection?
Are they compensated for their work, and if so, how much and for what duties?
What will the annual cost to Alberta taxpayers be for their efforts, and those of Mr. Caldwell?
Indeed, since the RTIA website says in one place that Mr. Caldwell is the RTIA’s executive director and in another says that position is held by one Rob Pearson, PhD, which one is it? Or are they both executive directors?
Alas, I have no answers for you just yet.
Ideology over facts, which are backed up by scientific and medical experts, is the norm for the UCP.
Sounds like it’s amateur hour for the UCP again. Something faith-based? Sure. That’s inoffensive to the base. And if it doesn’t work, who cares? It’s not like addicts matter. The more I understand what the Alberta Recovery Model is, the more it sounds like an out-of-sight-out-of-mind scam. Want to make the problem of addiction go away? Hide it in a facility in rural Alberta, that no one can find. Claim is offers some Woo-based therapeutic craziness, but above all make the addicts go away. This centre is no more than a reintroduction of the state mental hospital dressed up as actually doing something. I’m looking forward to the rural cancer facility to make cancer patients go away.
Please let me translate the Tats for you.. ” We run this shyte show, so shut the frack up and sit the fug down!” “Got it?” “Good!”
It does bring to mind 8-year olds playing, pretending to be adults by using “big words” and parroting language they’ve heard grown ups use.
Sigh. Us Albertans (sure, not you, us as a group) vote with the same lack of sophistication and that gives us the UCP.
We are seeing all these recovery centres being built to help addicts. It’s too bad there isn’t a coordinated government educational campaign to end alcoholism and drug addiction to make them look less like political feeding troughs.
Albertans are truly forked. I saw a yellow Camaro the other day, with transformer badging and “Fork Trudeau” stickers all over it. Sums up the puerility of Alberta voters succinctly. So long Alberta, and thanks for all that money (not letting the door hit me on the way back to Canada, suckers!)
I share your trepidation. Anything Smith touches is toxic.
I realized that I was reading this too quickly when I thought that I saw the phrase “absinthe-based”.
You gave me a scare there, Sub-Boreal. That probably wouldn’t have been the worst spell-check-induced typo I’ve ever committed, but it certainly would have been in the running. DJC
Oh dear, sorry about that!
S-B
Good point. Clinical administration of The Green Fairy has not received the attention that it merits as a possible therapeutic treatment for opiate addiction. Now that you’ve brought it up, the deep minds of the RTIA will probably take this exciting proposal under advisement.
Flavored with “wormwood ” –shades of RFKjr ?
Though imo, it probably wouldn’t make it to the patients if Mr Williams had a say.
And if this is a victory for the UCP’s recruitment campaign for the ” Alberta Advantage ” … the people of BC would like to say Thank You, and sorry!
Sounds like a plan to undermine Alberta’s accredited post-secondary institutions.
Why is the Alberta government logo on the RTIA page? A resident of the maximum-security prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas? So many questions, all leading back to my first statement.
Abs: I think undermining post-secondary institutions is the least of it at this time. The drug crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have combined to create an opportunity for the UCP to get away with a massive privatization scheme. They are moving fast to create conditions in which this disaster – for a disaster is what it’s going to turn out to be – can never be undone. As for the Fort Leavenworth factoid, it’s right in the biography of faculty member Kevin McCauley, “a non-practicing physician,” who says that “when he found himself addicted to opioid pain medications following a surgical procedure he was imprisoned by the Marine Corps in solitary confinement, court-martialed.” So having overcome a drug addiction is not necessarily a bad thing in the business of trying to help others overcome drug addiction. DJC
“can never be undone” “Never” is a very long time. As an old mechanic once said to me as he puzzled how to deal with an ill-designed bit of equipment: “if it was put together by man, it can be taken apart by man.”
For the sensitive, I would update this bit of wisdom to “if it was put together by a bunch of fundamentalists, it can be taken apart by decent people.”
This whole UCP approach certainly sounds like something from Pynchon’s “Inherent Vice.” Lots of misery for people, and all of it profit centers for the organized crime/police/treatment/incarceration system.
No doubt the public post-secondary institutions will be made private before long, though, in my view. Of course, every public institution and natural resource is up for sale now in Alberta. The excuse that protestors cannot protest on “private” property at our public university campuses was just jumping the gun. I’m thinking that installing a university president with a politically-acceptable family tree was quite intentional. Doesn’t hurt to have family who have friends in high places, either.
Is it my imagination or has the Alberta Government set the table for a “Made in Alberta” fully integrated, private, for profit addictions industry. No doubt, the addictions people have done their modelling and number crunching and know a minimum number of patients/product has to cycle through their system to maintain profitability. The best way to keep that addictions assembly line full is using treatments known to fail. Smith et al have certainly done their best to help them out. Laws passed to enable forced confinement. Check. Plenty of tax dollars spent on facilities to give the industry a head start. Check. Hobble the public sector through legislation and lack of funding so it can’t do the job. Check. Create a workforce for the industry. Check. I am going to go out on a limb here and guess there will be very few regulations and virtually no oversight for this. I wonder if they used the private for profit prison industry in the U.S. as a template?
JE: I think it is quite likely you have described the business model quite accurately. DJC
There are two things the UCP has a lot of: silly ideas and money. Well, technically much of it is our money.
For anything they are not keen on, fiscal restraint is their general approach and then they spend some of the surplus on pursuing their wilder ideas. So it is not surprising that Lakeview Recovery facility looks nice and yes it wouldn’t be surprising if the budget even had ample room for two executive directors. Although you have to wonder if that was just a communications mix up.
Hello J Eye,
I don’t think it’s your imagination. What you have described is, in my view, exactly what this is. Money will be funneled to private companies/societies etc. and to individuals, most of whom probably lack adequate credentials and training, appearing to deal with addiction of those who, mostly likely, have been illegally detained. The Alberta legislature probably has passed a law that claims to permit an action, i. e. forcible confining people, that likely is contrary to law. The existence of an Alberta law does not make an illegal action into a legal one, no matter what Danielle Smith claims. The whole thing is, I think, a very expensive farce for taxpayers, with potentially serious consequences for those whom it targets.
One last thought. I hope that this awful model does not discourage those seeking appropriate help in overcoming an addiction from seeking assistance because they are afraid of being caught up in this, probably illegal, capture and confinement..
Christina: The law you speak of hasn’t been passed yet. Look for it in the next session of the Legislature. DJC
Recovery Alberta is also taking over justice.
No, what they’re doing is taking over health services in provincial correctional facilities from Alberta Health Services, not the entire justice or correctional system.
I think the worst thing about this is the training. Pretty thin. It’s only eight weeks, is on-line, and I don’t think I saw anything about entrance requirements.
Exactly. Is this for ppl already working in the field?
For certified counsellors, nurses, physicians, social workers, or geared towards peer support workers?
Do I presume, the primary employers for those ppl with these micro-credentials will be GOA designed recovery facilities? If, so, then this is really employer based training for their workers. Website, stated specific components of their online education may ‘not be recognized’.
The Website was grossly inadequate to describe who would be their target audience as students.
Anyone interested in working in a trauma-informed environment with the vulnerable sector should take the FREE online AFWI Brainstory Certification. Work at your own pace, states 20+hr. It took me closer to 30hrs. Digs deep into the core relationship btwn trauma and its effects on the brain AND the discusses, the principles behind prevention, in the first place.
Tracy and Anne: In 2021, the UCP Government pulled the plug on NDP legislation that would have created legitimate credentials and a proper regulatory regime for counselling therapists, including those who work in addictions treatment, at the 11th hour. This CBC story explains much of the background and identifies some of the people involved. It’s pretty clear what the UCP’s motives were and are in that decision and the policies that have followed. DJC
Indeed … as I discussed at somewhat greater length in a reply to Arno’s comment on the 22nd …
Canada learned the term, “War on Drugs” from the USA. Like a lot of things proffered by our southern cousins, we should probably “just say ‘no’.”
When it comes to the so-called “fentanyl crisis”—generic for a number of extremely powerful synthetic opioids, plus the now inaccurate word for what has turned out to be an ongoing overdose epidemic, not something portending imminent change—Canada and the US are markedly different. Failure to recognize the difference leads to bad or ineffective policy here in Canada.
Canada’s federal Health Act, which provides universal public healthcare insurance, and its relative dearth of pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity precludes the kind of widespread abuse of both pharmaceutical and illegally-made opioids seen in the USA. America has five times the number of sovereign federates, or sub-jurisdictions of healthcare authority, thousands of health insurance underwriters, tens of millions of individual medical insurance policy-holders, almost all of North America’s pharmaceutical manufactories, and many more ports of entry than Canada has. There are simply many more ways to corrupt the legitimate manufacturing/distributing system and bypass border patrols in the US than in Canada. “Root causes” drive the partisan right crazy, but I just can’t help but mention that poverty and addiction are closely correlated—and the US definitely has a poverty problem.
Over 90% of police seizures of supposed pharmaceutical opioids sold on the street in Canada is counterfeit and laced with illegally-made “fentanyl”. It’s the opposite in the USA: 90% are diverted pharmaceutical opioids, only 10% counterfeit. That means the premise Canadian physician colleges used to rationalize their 2016 ‘crackdown’ on opioid prescription in order to address the fentanyl “crisis” (as it appeared when it first arrived in 2015) was false: diverted prescribed opioids do not significantly contribute to the supply of opioids sold on the street (neither has it ever been shown that opioid prescription leads to abusive addiction in any substantial way: 0ver 95% of patients prescribed opioids get benefit without becoming addicted, without selling their meds onto black market, or using illegal street-drugs themselves).
It also means US litigation is largely about legitimate manufacturers negligently wholesaling pharmaceutical opioids to shady retailers far in excess of what the legitimate regional demand would warrant (who then distribute them to the street market). It almost seems class-actions by groups of American states is itself becoming an addiction: tens of billions of dollars have been awarded or settled out of court—so there’s certainly incentive to recover costs of addiction, most of those involving incarceration which, like healthcare in the US, is largely privatized.
Another kind of “addiction” is authorities’ rote citation of the number of “recovery beds” they have planned. “Beds” has become politcalese for “look!—see how much we’re doing about the problem!” They’ve been citing “beds” for years, yet the problem isn’t going away.
What’s troubling about the Alberta Recovery Model is its private nature. Texas North is the only place in Canada that overtly undermines the federal Health Act in favour of US-style privatization. As mentioned, many aspects of private healthcare contribute to abuse of prescribed opioids in the US; however, thousands of private facilities for treating addiction to street fentanyl (virtually all street opioids are doped with, or entirely laced with illegally made fentanyl) have opened up more opportunities to bilk insurance companies and foster the illegal distribution of fentanyl. Many state police forces are low-paying and the temptation to skim benefit from criminal corruption of private treatment clinics is known to make some cops bent.
But never mind that: the jury is still out as to whether typical abstinence clinics or “detox” or “dry-out” facilities really work or not. By all accounts, relapse rates are very high. Doubtlessly many patients benefit from getting clean, even if they don’t stay clean, but the presumption that ‘curing’ addiction is as simple as breaking a single link on a chain has no basis in reality.
I found Alberta recovery centre’s ribbon-cutting images disturbing—the politicians seem suspiciously gleeful and ghoulishly self-congratulatory, almost as if cocking a snook at other jurisdictions which deploy a multipronged approach to addiction treatment instead of the one-size-fits-all-inmates method the UCP government has espoused. The ‘training centre’ in search of “excellence” seems incongruent with the incredibly complex nature of human addiction. Calling it a “sector” sounds more like economics than medicine or psychology —and economics, the “dismal science”, is already one of the UCP’s demonstrated weaknesses. It’s actually nothing compared to the conundrum—the many conundrums—of addiction and its treatment which tower over mere economics in complexity.
Finally, cutting off or rejecting other approaches to addiction treatment is, all by itself, stupid. Yes, it’s easy for the partisan right to criticize decriminalization or safe-supply or safe-injection sites because it continually makes addiction a bogeyman that scares politicians as much as it does voters. To this extent the right succeeds, however, these alternative methods fail also because none have been given a real chance to work—and every slip-up adds fuel to the right’s disingenuous outrage over addiction. BC tried decriminalization but had to rescind much of the attempt because of rampant drug use in public (the basic logic of decriminalization is still valid, but its implementation needs work). Safe supply is proven effective and is being tried in a number of places—officially and unofficially; however, it has never been offered to everyone who needs it (not even close), has never been regularized, has never been granted the facilities required to really make it work. And safe-injection has, without and doubt whatsoever, saved countless thousands of lives (these sites are needed so long’s poisoned street-dope is all that’s available to users). Those who deny it show how little they care about human life. That might have worked for them when addiction and overdosing were confounded to a small subset of society, but nowadays deaths from illegally-made fentanyl has touched nearly every family.
In sum, I don’t see much to recommend the Alberta Recovery Model. To be fair it needs to be given a chance—but the whole approach reeks of meanness and brimstone. The proof will be in the pudding.
“The KIDS centers in El Paso and Orange County closed last year because of financial difficulties, but the facilities in Hackensack and Salt Lake City are still operating. In addition, Newton has authorized the opening of KIDS of the Canadian West in Calgary this spring. The Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission has agreed to allocate $600,000 toward setting it up. Private donors are expected to match the government grant. More than 40 Canadian youngsters are currently under treatment at KIDS of Bergen County in Hackensack.”
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-03-24-mn-711-story.html
You’ll get in a lot of trouble if you “dead name” KOCW. Hundreds of people from Alberta were sent to an array of us programs in the late eighties, paid for by the Getty government. Be sure to post accounts of the investigation conducted after they proved to be bizarro cults.
“Keeping ‘Cult’ Out of the Case
How do you convince a jury that your client was a victim of a cult?
New Jersey Law Journal/July 7, 2003
By Tim O’Brien”
The Alberta Government paid to send dozens of people to the institution central to this story. Great Calgarians™ overcame many obstacles to get a franchise opened in Calgary, a flagship for privatization in which the usual suspect, Jim Dinning, was up to his eyeballs. It exists to this day.
https://culteducation.com/group/1274-straight-inc/19713-keeping-cult-out-of-the-case.html
How about focusing on the fact that Alberta is actually doing something good about addictions by providing treatment centers and wrap around treatment for people who need it. We are way ahead of other provinces when it comes to addictions treatment so why not focus on that?
Recovery facilities are good but by themselves have never even scratched the surface of the fentanyl epidemic. There isn’t a single place in Canada that isn’t “actually doing something good about addictions,” but relying on one method or another alone, or deploying them unevenly or poorly funded is the common shortcoming in every jurisdiction—including Alberta.
The facility described does not detail anything about “wrap-around” supports. Indeed, the UCP rather seems confident —too confident, I would say—that one or maybe two short treatments will successfully return addicts to a normal life. There is no evidence to support this notion. It doesn’t matter how many trained apologists present favourable-looking criteria for success: real outcomes will be hard to excuse, nonetheless. “Wrap-around” might include any number of supports from community education to public housing and on to basic access to general medical practice.
In fact both the UCP and this site are doing precisely what you ask: focusing on the announced treatment facility and its general policy. In so doing, the UCP appears to be too focused on a very mechano-economic abstinence approach —too focused to accommodate well-known aspects of addiction—like relapses, for example—that conspicuous enthusiasm by the government and its private contractors plainly dismiss, if not miss altogether.
Good question, though. Turns out there are plenty of good reasons why the plan should be focused on, starting with its mission statement and the number of critically important questions that haven’t been answered yet.
Scotty: UCP MLAs and cabinet members may (or may not) believe that one or two short treatments will return addicts to an unaddicted life. I very much doubt the principles behind these private sector treatment companies believe any such thing. Frequent relapses are part of their business plan. DJC
You do realize that there is a difference between doing SOMETHING and doing something EFFECTIVELY? And do you have any evidence that Alberta is in fact “way ahead” of other provinces or are you just parroting the UCP brochure on the subject?
A recent survey declared that Albertans like Donald Trump more than Americans do. And it was also revealed that V. Putin has promised asylum to any American CON who wants to live in a *truly* free country, that’s free of the Woke Mind Virus. Apparently this offer was also extended to Joe Rogan. There is no comment from Rogan’s people. Interestingly enough, on an instalment of Rogan’s podcast, Jordan Peterson confessed to be recovering from ‘Benzos’ addiction. He sought treatment in Russia, because, as Peterson put it, Russia leads the world in every scientific endeavour. And he also feared for his safety in Canada. Looks like Russia is every CON’s wet dream these days.
Speaking of con wet dreams, do a Google search for “Jordan Peterson and his grandmother’s pubic hair.” You can’t make this stuff up.
Smoke: I think I’ll skip that one, if you don’t mind awfully. DJC
The thing about recovery coaches in Alberta, and Canada for that matter, is that there are no recovery coach jobs for those being trained. Treatment centres such as Simon House have renamed some jobs to Recovery Coach to be seen as playing ball with the UCP, but they’re the same old addiction support workers as before, not recovery coaches. RTIA looks like a slick way to suck up government and student money, look like it’s doing something, but not actually addressing anything that’s real.
I am an Addictions Counsellor with AHS (until September 1st when I move to Recovery Alberta). I’m all for new rehabs…but as an Addictions Counsellor with AHS, with a 4 year degree, 10 years experience, many hours of supervision from qualified professionals and ongoing education in my field…this is all very concerning. The title of “addictions counsellor” is unprotected and there are no standards or ethical practices in place to keep the public safe in regards to addiction treatment in this province. AHS has done a nice job of setting up standards, ethical practices and requirements for ACs within AHS, but outside of this its the wild west when it comes to Addiction treatment. I’m not saying that AA and faith – based programs can’t be helpful, but they aren’t for everyone. And I can’t see how an 8 week course should be the standard for someone providing addiction treatment…I’ve been doing this work since 2014 and its very difficult at times. I’m concerned for my own position in moving to Recovery Alberta considering the very basic training that will be required to work there as a new employee…will my position be re-classififed? Will I now become a recovery coach and get paid 20 bucks an hour (or less) while the CEO of ROSC Solutions gets a new BMW from their contract with the UCP government? This is only recovery community number 3 of 11 ! Some folks are going to make a lot of money here…and as long as the addicts are off the street and in rehab being “cured” by god knows what standards, Albertans will be happy. But the UCP government hasn’t once asked to speak with a professional Addictions Counsellor with AHS….why would they? To separate Addictions from our Health Care field is the goal so they can hire contracted friends from BC to run our treatment centers was the plan all along here.
So sad.
“The title of “addictions counsellor” is unprotected and there are no standards or ethical practices in place to keep the public safe in regards to addiction treatment in this province.” Speaking of which …
The legislature passed amendments to the Health Professions Act in December 2018 – note the date – that would have created a College of Counselling Therapists and regulated the professions of Counseling Therapist, Child & Youth Care Counsellor, and Addictions Counsellor. Note also that the legislation passed third reading unanimously, suggesting that the Opposition UCP caucus at the time supported it.
However, that legislation – and the regulations thereto – were not yet proclaimed into law by the time of the 2019 election. Then in 2020, the Kenney UCP government passed the Health Statutes Amendment Act, one provision of which allowed multiple professions to be regulated under one existing College. Then on March 1st of this year, the current government announced that Counselling Therapists would be regulated under the College of Alberta Psychologists instead of under their own College. Tellingly, the government press release does not mention Addictions Counsellors, and while the announcement stated that enabling legislation would be introduced into the legislature, I have not seen any sign that it has been.
Now they’re bringing out this phone education programme for Addictions Counsellors. Colour me surprised … not.
https://www.cap.ab.ca/Portals/0/adam/Content/vb-vnkYuuUyHAhPXr_qJkA/Link/2024%2003%2015%20FAQ%20FINAL.pdf
https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=89844D2DE27C5-C464-57A2-8753226607BC5736
https://www.acta-alberta.ca/
https://www.acta-alberta.ca/news/annoucement-counselling-therapists-to-be-regulated-in-alberta-under-th-ecollege-of-alberta-psychologists
I keep seeing items and programs like this from the right. And I wonder if there are recovery or conversion programs to turn those on the right into compassionate human beings. Sorry maybe that is too woke for them.