Rapid Access Addiction Medicine clinic opens at Kitchener CTS site

The Kitchener CTS site (Supplied: Region of Waterloo)

KITCHENER — A Rapid Access Addiction Medicine (RAAM) clinic has opened at Kitchener's consumption and treatment services site.

The RAAM clinic is a partnership between Region of Waterloo Public Health, Sanguen Health Centre, House of Friendship and Stonehenge Therapeutic Community.

The clinic is on the second floor of the CTS site located at 150 King St. West. It will help people of all ages experiencing health concerns related to current substance use.

“We’re excited for the RAAM Clinic to join us at CTS because it’s another option we can offer people in the community," said Violet Umanetz, supervisor of Consumption and Treatment Services Kitchener with Sanguen Health Centre, in a news release. "The more tools people have available to them with limited barriers, the better our community is as a whole. An underpinning of harm reduction is supporting people in the ways they want to be supported and the CTS has done well finding ways to fit each person in their own way and will continue to do so with the RAAM Clinic as a continuum of that support.”

Officials said the clinic will offer a range of services to help meet peoples' goals and needs, including harm reduction, abstinence and any other treatment options.

"We see this as a pivotal part of the harm-reduction continuum in our community, by providing a hub of support in one location for those who are using substances. Here, we can build trust and relationships with individuals, as we walk alongside them on their journey to recovery," said Tara Groves-Taylor, Addiction Services Director for House of Friendship, in the release.

The service will have COVID-19 guidelines in place.

Kitchener's CTS site opened on Oct. 15, 2019 and moved into a permanent home on Oct. 14, 2020.

There were 5,721 visits to the site between March 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. Officials said they were able to reverse 201 overdoses in that same timeframe and there were zero overdose deaths.