MOTHER OF RECOVERING ADDICT DECRIES RICHMOND NIMBYS

Vancouver Recovery Centre Was A Lifesaver For Her Daughter

Here's a true story for the Not-in-Anybody's-Backyard people, who
oppose addictions treatment centres.

On Oct. 20, 2006, Kirsty Smith jumped off the Granville Street Bridge
but was rescued. Kirsty was injured, but it could have been worse.

Her suicide attempt came after many years of struggling with drug
addiction on top of her bipolar diagnosis.

Attempted suicides are an unreported part of the addiction story.

Newspapers shy away from writing about them unless the attempt causes
traffic tie-ups. They're deemed to be personal tragedies, but just
because you rarely read about them doesn't mean they aren't common.

Kirsty had nowhere to go after she'd been treated for her injuries
and released from hospital. So her mom took her home to her
one-bedroom apartment.

Over the next six months with constant supervision, Kirsty made progress.

She stayed on her prescription medications and slowly was recovering
from her addiction to others.

It was only a temporary solution. Kirsty is an adult, long past the
age of living with mom. Fortunately, Kirsty got an apartment of her
own at Rain City.

It's the 30-bed facility at Fraser Street and 41st Avenue, which was
built only after Vancouver's city council bravely stared down the
fierce resistance of the neighbourhood and approved the rezoning of
the property.

"It was a lifesaver for her," Kirsty's mom, J.V. Smith, told me. J.V.
wrote me because she's furious that Richmond city council has not
shown the same sort of fortitude that Vancouver's council did.

Faced with an 1,100-name petition by a group called the Caring
Citizens of Richmond, the council diddled about for nearly two years,
undecided about what to do with a proposal from Turning Point Society
to build a 32-bed addictions recovery centre that was to have
included 11 affordable housing units for mothers with children.

The proposal was described by Jeff Coleman, chief operating officer
of Richmond Health Services, as "an important piece in the
ever-expanding and evolving health services that are needed in the community."

It's interesting that Richmond council can't connect the dots between
its community being home to the largest ecstasy drug lab ever found
in B.C. and the idea that just maybe some of their citizens are not
only drug users, but people who would really like to break their
addiction if they only had some place to go for treatment other than
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Turning Point's centre would have housed mostly women, all of whom
are sober and in the second stage of recovery. It would not have
accepted women with dual diagnoses like Kirsty.

It would have been Richmond's first drug rehabilitation facility for
women. Currently it has none.

J.V. finds the whole thing appalling. She spent years agonizing over
her daughter's illness and addiction. Now, her daughter is finally
safe and both J.V. and Kirsty are starting to believe that a normal
life is possible.

J.V. thinks part of the problem may be that like her, most people
simply don't know what supportive housing looks like.

"I was astounded when I first saw Kirsty's apartment [at Rain City].
It was small, but very tastefully decorated and furnished," she says.
"I had expected something more antiseptic and spartan. I was totally stunned.

"My daughter and 29 others are very happy in their apartments. There
are rules of course, and anyone who breaks the rules has to leave.
Everything is calm and well organized. Nobody is running amok on the streets."

Because of her daughter's experience, J.V. fully supports the
provincial government, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and
non-profit groups such as Turning Point that are trying to build more
supportive housing in the Lower Mainland.

"Decent housing is a very important component of treatment along with
the drug and alcohol addiction rehabilitation facilities that the
Caring Citizens of Richmond, in their 'infinite wisdom', turned
down," she says. "What were those people thinking?"

I'll let Caring Citizens' founder Ernie Mendoza answer that, since he
also e-mailed me after my last column about his group's opposition to
Turning Point to accused me of sensationalism and bias.

"Addiction to alcohol, drugs, or other substances, could be traced to
unwanted pregnancies, family abuse, domestic violence, spousal abuse,
marriage breakup, children coming to an empty home, parents busy with
their own social lives, lack of spiritual nourishment, and abdication
of, and inability to understand, parental responsibilities," he said
in a recent letter to the Richmond News.

"It is exacerbated by schools no longer allowed to say prayers or use
biblical teachings yet are obliged to encourage education about
same-sex partnerships."

If you want to read more, go to the NIABY website at http://www.niaby.com/