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A one-year pilot program that launched in Prince Albert earlier this month is providing paramedic services to people behind bars who are struggling with addictions.
The $300,000 program, which launched May 1, is funded by the province and aims to offer appropriate treatment in the cell block instead of sending people to the emergency room.
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Try refreshing your browser, or Paramedics to provide care in P.A. police detention overnight Back to video
Prince Albert Police Chief Jon Bergen told media this week that roughly half of the 6,000 people arrested in the city each year are intoxicated and that addiction-related intoxication is on the rise.
Posted: May 06, 2021 7:12 PM CT | Last Updated: May 7
Paramedics will now be at the Prince Albert police detention centre seven days a week between 7:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. to offer health-care intervention for addicts particularly to those needing support to stabilize and detoxify.(Parkland Ambulance Care)
Those with addictions in the custody of Prince Albert police now have access to onsite paramedic attention.
Police and Parkland Ambulance Care have teamed up with the Saskatchewan Health Authority for a new one-year pilot project. Paramedics will be at the detention centre seven days a week between 7:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. to offer health-care intervention for addicts particularly to those who need support to stabilize and detoxify.
Last year, the Prince Albert Police Service (PAPS) made nearly 6,000 arrests; about half of them were for intoxication and the numbers are on track to be similar this year.
To ensure the safety of those detained, PAPS, Parkland Ambulance Care and the Saskatchewan Health Authority, through a roster of addiction medicine on-call physicians, have partnered to offer health-care intervention to detained individuals experiencing addiction – particularly those requiring support to stabilize and detoxify.
“We have a supervisor that previously had to determine when it was appropriate to call for medical support and now with a paramedic, who has a much higher level of training as it relates to health and has the equipment to properly assess and triage somebody, we will be able to assess properly when someone needs to go to the hospital and when someone needs to be monitored here in the detention centre,” said PAPS Chief Jonathan Bergen.