Canadian Mental Health

By Angela Gemmill

After months of prepping, the Canadian Mental Health Association has begun its Harm Reduction Home Day Program in a temporary location in Greater Sudbury.

Individuals who are chronically homeless, as well as impacted by alcohol dependence, will receive managed doses of alcohol to reduce the harms associated with street drinking.

The services are now available to individuals between 8:30am and 6pm in the same location that the Salvation Army operates its overnight Out of the Cold shelter at 200 Larch Street.

Sharing the same building is just fine withHarm Reduction Home Manager, Tina Ranta.

She says clients of the CMHA program usually are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless so they need an overnight shelter, like the Out of the Cold facility.

Ranta hopes the program can expand to include the shelter component, once they confirm a permanent location, likely by the coming spring.

Until then this is the first part to what will eventually be a 15-bed wet shelter facility for individuals with an addiction to alcohol.