MOBILE TREATMENT FOR YOUTH

Interior Health (IH) has awarded a contract to Axis Family Resources
Ltd. of Kamloops to provide mobile youth addictions treatment and
housing service to the communities of Chase, Clearwater, Barriere,
Merritt, Lillooet, 100 Mile House, Williams Lake and Kamloops.

This new addiction treatment service will offer flexible, therapeutic
counselling and will cater to the individual needs of youth clients
up to 25-years-of- age.

"I have heard from communities throughout the Thompson Valleys, drug
addiction among youth is one of their biggest concerns," says
Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Kevin Krueger. "I am pleased to see a
program established to reach out to those communities to more
effectively address this growing problem."

"This flexible, client-centred program will help these clients at
whatever stage they are at, in their recovery process." says Kamloops
MLA Claude Richmond. "I commend IH for developing creative ways to
ensure those at risk receive the care they need in the most
accessible way possible."

The program involves two contracts totalling $420,000, one for the
housing component and one for the therapeutic services. The housing
component will provide short-term housing to youth clients while they
are receiving counselling services. Totaling six beds, two will be
located in Kamloops, two in Williams Lake and two in the
Thompson-Cariboo region as needed.

"These beds will be located in private 'safe houses' in communities,
will serve clients under the age of 25 and will entail residential
support while they receive alcohol and drug treatment services and
withdrawal management," says Rae Samson, manager of addiction
services for the Thompson-Cariboo region of IH. "These six beds allow
youth to stay closer to home while receiving the care they need."

The mobile intensive treatment service will offer therapeutic
services during the day, evenings and weekends for up to 12 clients
at a time. The program will run between four and six weeks, depending
on the services required. This service will compliment existing
addictions and mental health programming, and will be flexible to
meet the particular needs and cultural sensitivities of youth in each
community.

Each community will receive one program, and Kamloops will receive two.

"This addictions treatment program will be flexible to meet the needs
of youth in each community, so if there is a particular problem with
crystal meth, for example, we will cater our services to meet the
challenges of recovering from that addiction," says Axis president
and CEO, Rick Gibson. "We are not going to duplicate existing
services; it is our goal to identify areas of need and enhance
addictions treatment services through collaboration and partnerships
in each community."

"This is a valuable, additional resource for the clients of MCFD, and
we are looking forward to working closely with the mobile addictions
service," says Tom Christensen, Minister of Children and Family Development.

"Our clients often require a variety of services, be it behavioral or
mental health, and are often involved with probation and/or are
street-involved, and this type of mobile treatment service and
housing will help meet these needs more effectively."

Axis is in the process of identifying family care homes that can
function as safe houses for addictions clients in the respective
communities. Those interested in providing this service are urged to
contact Axis at 851-2947.