Service Access to Recovery

Service Access to Recovery (SAR) is the centralized access mechanism towards treatment of addiction and concurrent disorders in the Ottawa region. Our main goal is to help people navigate the addictions treatment system so they can find the treatment option that is right for them, from over 40 programs offered by some 20 agencies financed by the LHIN, including hospitals. We conduct screening and assessments using validated instruments, discuss the client’s recovery objectives with them and offer referrals to treatment agencies using secured software, accessible to our partners via the Web. It is a completely bilingual service that evaluated 2,700 people and made over 2,660 referrals to treatment last year. SAR is known for its rapid screening-triage, where clients meet a navigator within 24 business hours and where the expertise of a Nurse Practitioner (NP) is available on site to immediately initiate primary care or opioid agonist treatment, or to direct certain clients to mental health care or withdrawal management options. The navigator then schedules a more in-depth assessment meeting where the client-program pairing will be determined. At this stage, clients are referred directly to one or more treatment programs adapted to their clinical profiles and recovery objectives. Various support options are then offered to clients waiting to be admitted to treatment.