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The territorial government announced Tuesday that it added two beds at Stanton Territorial Hospital to support people going through alcohol withdrawal.

Started in May, Alcohol Withdrawal Access Program (AWAP) is coordinating the service, according to the NWT Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA).

That announcement states two medical detox beds are in the hospital鈥檚 medicine unit to provide withdrawal management for people who require medical supervision before entering an addictions treatment program. 

But this is not a walk-in service. The authority states the two beds are only for planned admissions organized by the Alcohol Withdrawal Access Program team. All admissions are coordinated through the program team and not through the hospital, according to the health authority.

鈥淭hese services are for patients applying for facility-based addiction treatment,鈥� NTHSSA stated. 

The program will initially be taking referrals from people in the Deh Cho, Sahtu and Fort Smith regions who are preparing for treatment and can benefit from detoxing closer to home. As capacity increases, it will expand to include more regions and on-the-land participants, the news release explains.

According to the GNWT, the decision to treat clients only is based on feedback from residents, communities and staff, who say that travelling out of the NWT for detox is a major barrier. 

Other healthcare providers can offer emergency withdrawal management services, however.

鈥淪tanton鈥檚 program is an extra option, specifically for patients who need planned medical detox before attending treatment elsewhere,鈥� according to the authority.

When this program was announced, the GNWT spoke of it being in its first phase. In its announcement, there is no mention of what the next phase will include, nor how many phases there will be in total.