The executive director of the Brentwood Recovery Home in Windsor says the demand for services for alcohol and drug addiction right now are beyond anything she's seen in her 40 years working in healthcare.
On Tuesday, Elizabeth Dulmage and Brentwood officials presented the winners of this year's Dream Home Lottery which is the organization's biggest fundraiser which helps raise funds for critical programs and services.
Brentwood operates 68 beds at its facility at 2335 Dougall Avenue, providing addictions and mental health supports and programs to clients and their families.
Just this week, another opioid alert was issued by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit after there were 15 opioid overdose emergency department visits in Windsor and Essex County between April 7 and April 13, 14 of which involved fentanyl.
There were also 16 substance use-related EMS calls, 10 of which were for suspected opioid overdoses during that week.
Dulmage says as good as days like Tuesday are, to award winners of the lottery, the need in the community continues as the experience for far too many people right now is dire.
"The need is exponentially increased. For us, every little bit counts. So we truly appreciate those people that buy one $5 50/50 ticket just as much as we appreciate those folks who have the ability to buy a $200 bundle," she said.
She says it's the power of everyone coming together, regardless of the amount of what they can give, because every penny counts and it all adds up.
A greater percentage of the people coming into Brentwood are homeless, many come in with already diagnosed mental illness on top of addiction disorder, and Dulmage says a lot of them are either on government assistance or have no real income.
"In addition to needing to help them and treat their addiction disorder, we're also needing to support them on finding a roof over their head and keeping food on the table. They come in with a whole host of needs that we have to address, if we don't address them, then we're setting them up for failure in their recovery."
Dulmage says the situation right now is beyond anything she's seen.
"The needs are great and the resources are stretched past the breaking point. Our staff does an extraordinary job taking care of people on program and taking care of the alumni supporting one another," she said.
Dulmage says it's a real challenge for a small community based organization to try and meet the demand without the resources of some of the bigger healthcare organizations.