'Bring everybody under one umbrella': Regina hosts recovery conference showcasing various treatment methods

The Recovery Capital Conference returned to Regina for the third year, bringing together various organizations who all share their goal of helping those struggling with addiction.

"One of the main reasons why we started the Recovery Capital Conference was we were noticing conferences that were related to addiction and mental health. We're very medical and pharma based, and we wanted to bring a recovery conversation to the conferences for health care providers, but also to the community so people can learn about what recovery is" Recovery Capital conference coordinator, Giuseppe Ganci said.

The conference travels across Canada and has been around for the past eight years. People working on differing sectors of addictions treatment had the opportunity to learn about first-line treatments for opioid use disorder, involuntary addiction treatment, the Canadian Health Act, in addition to various other aspects pertaining to mental health and addiction.

"We need to connect with each other. We need to connect people to people, people to health care and health care, to other health care providers. For a really long time, it was us versus them and harm reduction versus recovery, 12 step versus medication and medication versus it was it was ridiculous," Ganci said.

Ganci went on to explain how there can be a place for various different methods of addiction treatment, which is why he feels this conference is so important.

“We wanted to bring everybody under one umbrella of recovery capital. And you can have recovery orientated harm reduction, recovery oriented and medication assisted therapy, recovery orientated treatment. How are we going to improve lives. And so we're taking that statement, meeting people where they're at and then helping them move forward in the continuum of care." Ganci said.

The message of working together, was also echoed by keynote speaker, Allan Kehler.

"I think so many people feel as though they're alone in their struggles when they're going through it and it's the same when individuals are trying to support people and the more that they can have the connections lean on each other, brainstorm, then the stronger we can become as a society." Kehler said.

Kehler has written several books about his journey of being 15 years sober and shared some of what he has learned during his sobriety journey during his address.

"This is bigger than me. Speaking is bigger than me. After the life that I've led, honestly, I feel like I really shouldn't even be alive after self-destruction. So to be in a position where I can share some of the things that I've been through and surround myself with people who have similar lived experience, or who even want to learn more about addictions recovery is a pleasure." Kehler said.

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Many of the organizations represented have different approaches to addiction recovery and Ganci expressed that working collaboratively is where progress lies.

"Recovery is possible, attainable and sustainable and just stabilizing someone is what health care is supposed to be about. And the health care system, the medical world will not fix the addiction crisis that Canada is in. It's the health care system combined with Indigenous health teams, combined with communities, combined with churches, combined with ethnicity groups all together working for one purpose, better health." Ganci said.

Kehler went on to explain that 15 years ago, when he made the decision to get sober, he would have benefitted from conferences like this one.

"Back then we didn't talk about this. And so to see how far we have evolved, to see how many people want to be part of this conversation, to form the connections is beautiful, like we're moving the right way." Kehler said.