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Projets autochtones du Québec
The Managed Alcohol Program (MAP) offered by Projets autochtones du Québec (PAQ) is, first and foremost, a housing service. 8 Indigenous men, living in a situation of chronic homelessness and suffering from a severe addiction to alcohol, can participate in it. It is a pilot program of permanent housing, which allows users to take part in a program aiming to reduce their dependance to alcohol. Its goal is to curb the obstacles to supervised housing and reduce the acute, chronic and social harms stemming from that dependence.
The MAP house residents make breakfast and lunch by themselves, every day. On the weekends, they cook dinner in the shared kitchen. Learning to cook is a fundamental life skill that is worked on every day as part of the MAP. To support the residents, groceries are delivered every week and the refrigerator is filled with healthy foodstuffs. Learning to plan, prepare and cook food takes time. This is why the mastery of those skills is integrated into PAQ’s Managed Alcohol Program.
Other program objectives for residents are:
- Offer a space that promotes stability and better quality of life.
- Improve access to primary health services.
- Surround participants with significant community support.
- Connect or reconnect participants to their Indigenous cultures.
Participants also have access to accompaniment and health care services. This includes weekly visits from the CHUM’s addiction medecine team, an on-site Projets autochtones du Québec nurse and a team of experienced intervenors, available 24/7. Thanks to this comprehensive structure of support, residents are able to stabilize their daily lives and focus on improving other important aspects of their quality of life.