'KIDS SERVED AT ADULTS' EXPENSE'

In its attempt to solve a growing youth drug addiction crisis, the B.C.
government is cannibalizing adult addiction services, critics charge.

At Vancouver's Robson Street outpatient addiction clinic, for example, staff
closed the waiting list earlier this month - refusing to even put new
clients on their list. The waitlist was already three months long - double
the normal wait.

Other Vancouver outpatient clinics are experiencing similar backups in
services to adults.

Critics who work in the ministry and can't speak publicly say the backlog
was created by a Ministry for Children and Families decision to move one
adult counsellor from each Vancouver clinic into youth counselling.

Sohan Singh, manager of the Robson Street team, insisted that the wait-list
was closed only briefly to allow the supervisor to contact everyone on it to
determine if he or she was still waiting for one-to-one counselling. It is
now open, he said.

But critics say:

* There is a serious backlog in adult outpatient counselling - although what
youths need desperately is residential drug treatment.

* Some 2,500 more residential treatment beds are needed to meet the needs of
addicted teens.

* The ministry is taking one-third of Vancouver's adult-addictions
counsellors and making them youth specialist - jobs they are not trained or
qualified for.

* While the ministry is focussing on youth addiction and has put money into
it, it is not clear how much is new money and how much is just shuffling of
service.