FAILING THE ADDICTED

The View From Victoria

The Vancouver Island Health Authority has failed in its
responsibility to provide addiction services, we suggested Saturday,
and its failures have increased the homeless and panhandling on
Victoria's streets.

Now VIHA's former clinical director of psychiatric emergency services
has offered a critique that suggests just how massive the failure has been.

Dr. Anthony Barale quit his job this month, citing "long-standing
frustrations" with the authority's failure to provide adequate
services for the addicted and the mentally ill. It was not an easy
decision; Barale had great hopes for the Archie Courtnall Centre when
it opened two years ago to help those dealing with addictions, mental
illness or both.

But Barale says he had no choice.

VIHA's administrators are out of touch with the needs of the addicted
population, especially those also suffering from severe mental
illness, he says. Medical staff struggle to provide basic care for a
flood of addicts and people with mental illnesses with "little
support and the pitiful resources provided by VIHA." The authority's
response to the problem is inadequate, "even by so-called 'Third
World standards,'" Barale says.

The Archie Courtnall Centre, where Barale had been based, was opened
almost two years ago to provide short-term services for all
psychiatric patients needing urgent help. Instead it has been swamped
with those struggling with addictions.

Those patients need to be stabilized and then referred to detox and
treatment centres. But VIHA has only seven adult detox beds in the
capital region, not nearly enough treatment spaces and no supported
residential beds to help them stay sober, Barale says. (VIHA plans to
open 30 supported residential living beds for people dealing with
mental illness and addiction in the region this year.) The critique
is damning and credible.

The concerns have all been raised by others, including the terrible
cruelty involved in turning away addicts seeking treatment knowing
that the result will be continued drug use.

Barale suggests the community give up on the health authority and
start fundraising to develop the needed resources to help addicts recover.

"VIHA has no real will and no real resources to do so," he says.

That's no answer. VIHA, like the other four health authorities, has
had responsibility for addiction services for five years. The
problems are greater now than ever and its performance has been
hopelessly inadequate.

It's time for accountability, with municipal politicians taking the
lead in demanding answers. If the problem is will, then VIHA needs to
be told that addiction and mental health services matter. If it is
money, then the province needs to be told to increase funding.

What we know now is that VIHA is failing in its responsibilities. The
results can be seen every day, on our downtown streets, in bleak
apartments, hospital beds, jails -- and cemeteries.