Virtual addiction medicine self-referral service comes to Kootenay region – Nelson News

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Interior Health is offering a new virtual addiction medicine clinic for Kootenay residents living with an alcohol or opioid use disorder.

The wait is over for rural residents who want to make appointments to see medical addiction specialists.

Quick and direct access to people who can help Kootenay residents living with an alcohol or opioid use disorder is now available through a virtual clinic.

A physician referral is not required for individuals to be referred to Interior Health’s Virtual Addiction Medicine (VAM) clinic using a web form, available at www.interiorhealth.ca/vam, to request an appointment to meet with an addiction medicine specialist.

All of this will ensure that people living in areas like West Kootenay, which is primarily rural, can be connected to services where accessing face-to-face care closer to home can be a challenge.

“The intent of this new service is to get clients into care as quickly as possible by removing any stigma that may be associated with accessing addiction health services in person,” said Debi Morris, director of the mental health and substance use network.

“A client does not have to go to a mental health and substance use clinic or talk to a health care provider to self-refer. The service also aims to remove barriers for clients who cannot easily access a physical location or center due to distance, mobility or transportation”.

Although the virtual clinic opened three years ago, and has been tested on several thousand IH patients in the region, the change now is that people no longer need a referral from a doctor and can directly contact a specialist to get faster access to services.

And the web form was designed to be simple, with people not needing to provide an address or BC Personal Health Number to request an appointment. People are given the choice of how they are contacted, whether it’s their number, a friend’s number, a shelter or another place they frequent.

how it works

After someone requests an appointment, a doctor will contact them, usually within one business day.

The client is then scheduled to meet with an addiction medicine specialist by phone or video conference. The clinic “team” works with the client on a treatment plan that may include prescription medications such as OAT.

Once the client is comfortable with their plan, they are referred to community health services.

Regional access line

The virtual clinic will soon be part of the regional central hotline and will work with the province-wide opioid treatment hotline (1-833-804-8111), so no matter where you are ‘approach someone, it is connected to the appropriate consumption of substances. service to your needs.

The next step in Interior Health’s implementation of this model will be to bring the virtual clinic and other substance use resources into a single access line where people can call for information, receive a clinical evaluation the same day and obtain an individualized care plan for substance use.

Clinic information

The VAM clinic is available Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. throughout the Kootenay region.

For anyone who needs immediate help, people are asked to visit the nearest emergency service or call a 24-hour crisis line:

• Domestic Crisis Line Network: 1-888-353-2273 or 1-800-784-2433;

• KUU-US Crisis Line (Indigenous): 1-800-588-8717;

• Métis Crisis Line: 1-833-638-4722; i

• Suicide crisis hotline – 988

For other mental health substance use services, people can call 310-MHSU.