DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE IS THE WORST PLACE FOR THE MENTALLY ILL

As anybody who's been in the Downtown Eastside knows, the big problem there
isn't simply crime, squalor and drug addiction. It's mental illness.

And the sad fact is Vancouver's skid row is one of the worst places in the
world for the mentally ill. Hundreds of lost souls wandering around among
the dealers, pimps and AIDS-ridden hookers shouldn't be there in the first
place.

They should be in safe, clean housing far away, where they can receive
regular treatment and help putting their lives back together. Giving them
some work to do wouldn't hurt either.

The other day, an apparently healthy fellow I'd just interviewed in the
Downtown Eastside burst into rage and began to jostle with a couple of the
other locals. This man was clearly off his medication, if not his rocker. He
was a danger to himself and others, vulnerable to the area's vicious cycle
of drugs and dependency.

And that is the real issue that needs to be addressed in the area, not
safe-injection sites. As long-time mental health advocate Roderick Louis
told me Friday: "Safe injection is not treatment, safe injection is
perpetuating the problem."

Louis points out that the mentally ill there face "a neighourhood that is
focused on activities which don't cultivate stability or mental wellness;
they cultivate the reverse."

He says there are far too many "non-profit" social agencies with far too
little financial accountability -- and far too big an incentive to keep the
mentally ill dependent on their services.

He estimates there are about 2,500 severely mentally ill people in the area:
"A good majority are dual-diagnosed, which means they have a drug addiction
problem as well as mental illness."

A Vancouver police report confirms this.

"It has been estimated that 40 per cent of the persons in the Downtown
Eastside who are addicted to drugs also have a mental illness," notes Chief
Jamie Graham. "Yet it is tragic that these people, who have few tools to
care for themselves, find themselves in the midst of this chaotic and
dangerous environment."

Gulzar Cheema, minister of state for mental health, says Victoria is
tackling the problem by merging addiction and mental-health services.

But he waffles over whether the mentally ill should be moved out of the
Downtown Eastside. First, he says treatment for them must be spread across
the province. Then, he says most of the current treatment centres are in the
Downtown Eastside -- and that "we should be providing services where the
patients are."

Well, which is it? Treatment in the Downtown Eastside or treatment
elsewhere? I agree with Louis. We need to come up with a whole new plan for
treating B.C.'s mentally ill -- and for breaking up Vancouver's mentally
sick drug ghetto.