It's been just over a month since the new Addictions Treatment Centre opened up at St. Joseph's Hospital, and the centre is already seeing its fair share of use. In fact, nearly all of the beds are taken up already. 

"It's been quite an eventful month," said St. Joseph's Hospital Executive Director Greg Hoffort. "As of this week, we'll be full to capacity so it's been a really busy month and a really sharp learning for a lot of staff and they've responded really well."

The centre officially opened on October 6 after months of renovations and restaffing, and it wasn't long before it was well-used. In fact, the 20 beds for recovering addicts are already spoken for, illustrating just how great the need for such a centre really was.  

"We were approved because of a demand for addiction services," said Hoffort, "so I would not say it's a surprise that there's that many people in need of our service. But it certainly happened a little sooner than we expected. We'll just keep at it and continue providing the service." 

In addition to the 20 beds, most of which are specifically geared toward methamphetamine addictions, there are also four pre-addiction and post-addiction bed. There hasn't been any need for the post-addiction beds just yet, as the new age of addiction recovery isn't just a one-month program. 

"It is one hundred percent tailored to each individual's needs," said Hoffort. "Gone are the days of a 28-day program... there's no such thing as a 28-day program at St. Joseph's centre. It's tailored to the needs of the individual, so if that's exactly what an individual needed, that's what they would get, but it (the recovery period) could be anywhere from four weeks to six weeks or longer."

Technically, this is not the first addictions treatment facility in the southeast, but it's been twenty years since the last one operated out of St. Joseph's Hospital. To see it up and running again and helping people recover was hugely rewarding for Hoffort. 

"It's been amazing to be able to first have the government of Saskatchewan entrust this responsibility to us at St. Joseph's Hospital," he said. "It's been a really amazing experience, watching the staff come into our organization, watching the staff join the addiction recovery team, and seeing them just motivated to make a difference in people's lives." 

Hoffort added both staff levels and equipment have been up to scratch so far.