Thunder Bay, Ont.'s 1st safe sobering beds open for people intoxicated by alcohol or drugs

People intoxicated by alcohol or drugs in Thunder Bay now have access to a space where they can rest and recover without judgment.

The community's first seven safe sobering beds opened on Monday at 500 Oliver Rd. The program, run by St. Joseph's Care Group, is the first of its kind in the northwestern Ontario city, which has the highest opioid-related death rate in the province.

The provincial government announced nearly $3 million for the program in September 2024. 

The beds are for anyone 16 and older who is under the influence of alcohol or other substances and does not require the level of care provided at an emergency department or in St. Joseph's withdrawal management program.

The program is entirely voluntary. It's hoped it will divert people from ending up in police custody or the emergency department, instead, giving them a more appropriate place to access support.

"We're really hoping to be able to create a safe space in our community to be able to take those calls that are less acute, where somebody doesn't require that full medical intervention of emergency services," said Andrea Docherty, vice-president of clinical and community health at St. Joseph's Care Group.

Developing a safe sobering program in the city was among the key recommendations made during a joint coroner's inquest into the deaths of two Oji-Cree men in 2022 — Roland McKay and Don Mamakwa — who died while in police custody in Thunder Bay.

Mamakwa, 44, was a member of Kasabonika First Nation. He died in 2014 after being arrested on the suspicion of public intoxication. His autopsy said his cause of death was ketoacidosis, a serious complication of Type 2 diabetes, alcohol use disorder and sepsis (when the body's response to an infection damages its own tissues).

McKay, 50, was Mamakwa's uncle and a member of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation. He died in 2017 while in police custody; it was determined he died of natural causes.

More than 30 organizations worked together to create a safe sobering model that would work in Thunder Bay.

"It's a local solution for our local needs, and so we're really grateful for all of that hard work and support," Docherty said.

People can stay in the beds for up to 24 hours at a time. The average stay is between four and eight hours.

"Today, we are closing a gap in addictions services," said Janine Black, president and CEO of St. Joseph's Care Group. "These spaces represent our collective responsibility to people in crisis, offering the support needed without defaulting to emergency rooms or jail cells, which were never meant to be the front lines of addiction care."

Connecting clients to other services

St. Joseph's Care Group operates several mental health and addictions services in the community. In the fall, it moved its 25 detox beds from the Balmoral Centre on Sibley Drive to the Crossroads Centre at Oliver Road to allow renovations to take place.

By the summer, the goal is to permanently move the Crossroads Centre pre and post-treatment recovery program to Sibley Drive to make room for both the safe sobering bed program and withdrawal management program at Oliver Road.

Once construction is complete, an additional eight safe sobering beds are hoped to be up and running by late spring or early summer, said Docherty.

"All our programs are voluntary but we're really hopeful that once someone's feeling a little bit better, we can introduce withdrawal management right across the hall and support them if they're interested," she said.

Several new staff have been hired to facilitate the safe sobering bed program, including nurses, addictions counsellors, Indigenous health counsellors and peer support workers.

Another key aspect of the program is creating a culturally-safe space. N'doo'owe Binesi, St. Joseph's Care Group's Indigenous health division, will provide traditional healing, system navigation, counselling and connection to Elders and ceremony as well.

While they expect most referrals will be made by police or the hospital, individuals can reach out to St. Joseph's Care Group directly on behalf of themselves or a loved one to access one of the beds, Docherty said.

"We're really hoping that this will be a warm, welcoming introduction to other services within our system," Docherty said.