NEW MENTAL HEALTH CENTRE MARKS A RETURN TO INSTITUTIONALIZED CARE

A new mental health facility will open its doors Friday at the old
Willingdon youth detention centre in Burnaby, marking a move back to
institutionalized care.

"It's a significant departure," newly named Housing and Social
Development Minister Rich Coleman said yesterday. "Some people would
call it reinstitutionalization, and I don't actually argue with that."

Coleman said he hasn't ruled out making changes to the Mental Health
Act to allow for more powers of committal.

For some, a move to institutionalized care may conjure memories of
abuse or mistreatment, but Coleman said it is the right approach.

"We have a group of people that are very badly addicted to something
who also have severe mental health issues," he said, explaining there
are about 300 people in the province who he thinks need the high-care
level Willingdon can provide.

"We need to be able to put you in a place where you have to stay,
where you are going to be taken care of -- we're going to address
your alcohol and drug addiction issues -- and we'll give you the
time, a couple of years in some cases, to actually address these
issues," he said.

Coleman said Willingdon will have capacity for about 100 clients who
will come to the facility voluntarily, through a mental-health worker
or through the community courts as an alternative to incarceration.
The goal of the program will not be to cloister people with mental
health problems away from the world, but instead to "stabilize them
long-term within our society."

A similar facility is to open at the old Riverview Hospital site in
Coquitlam by the end of this year.

Elizabeth Zoffman, a psychiatrist who used to work at Riverview, said
Coleman's announcement raises "more questions than it answers."

"What about the fact that you can't certify people who aren't
mentally ill? And you can't certify people who are simply on drugs
and alcohol? What about the fact that judges can't mandate treatment?
What about the fact that no matter how long they stay, there isn't
any place for them to go?" she said.

New Democratic Party critic for homelessness and mental health David
Chudnovsky had other concerns.

The province falls short in serving the entire mental health
community, and a few hundred beds will only be the beginning, he said.

"They're opening this facility, and it's a good idea to provide that
intensive treatment option, but there are thousands of people who
need less intensive treatment who aren't getting what they need."