CITY BADLY NEEDS MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE

There is an argument to be made for the city refusing to hire a mental
health advocate. The NPA made it when it held the majority on council
last time around and Vision Vancouver councillors failed to get a
motion passed asking for the position to be created.

Lone NPA Coun. Suzanne Anton made it again this week when the Vision
majority led by Coun. Kerry Jang passed a motion to further pursue the
idea, which was a Vision campaign promise.

Anton argues that mental health is a provincial responsibility. The
city is entering a new field and will be picking up costs that should
legitimately be borne by a senior level of government.

But there is a better argument to support hiring the advocate.
Vancouver has a history of stepping in temporarily or permanently to
deal with problems that are technically the responsibility of senior
governments.

Vancouver funded the first needle exchange under then mayor Gordon
Campbell until the provincial health authority picked up the bill.
While drugs and addiction are federal and provincial responsibilities
and Vancouver's drug policy relies largely on senior levels of
government to fund it, Vancouver pays for drug policy coordinator
Donald MacPherson and a small support staff.

Social housing is clearly something the province and Ottawa should be
responsible for, but Vancouver has staff and housing outreach worker
Judy Graves assigned to help the homeless and contributes money and
resources for homeless shelters.

We do this because the people being assisted are living in our city
and on our streets. But it's more than a matter of having a good heart
that prompts these actions. There are economic benefits to harm
reduction and providing the homeless with shelter and a safe
environment.

You could also argue that setting up a mental health advocate with
small staff support would lead to better use of city resources and
actually save money.

No one is more aware of that than the Vancouver Police Department. As
things stand now, the police are overwhelmed by the problem.

A recent VPD study concluded that a third of the calls police
responded to across the city involved at least one person who was
mentally ill. In the Downtown Eastside, that number is up to 50 per
cent.

While cops may truly care to help those who are mentally ill, they
would be the first to admit that they are not the best trained to do
the job; they are too expensive to be doing that work and their
services could be better used elsewhere.

The Car 87 program, which has a cop travel along with a psychiatric
nurse, may have been fine a few decades ago. It barely addresses the
problem now.

Jang is a practicing psychiatrist who specializes in mental illness
and drug addiction at UBC. He says there are many organizations, from
hospitals to neighbourhood houses, that want to help the mentally ill
in this city. But there is no overall plan to direct their efforts.
That would be a task for the mental health advocate.

The advocate would locate resources and coordinate
efforts.

There is a bit of a tussle within city hall as to just how this
advocate will work with the folks focusing on homelessness and drug
addiction. Many mentally ill people are both homeless and addicts.

There has been a serious lobbying effort to hand this new task to the
drug policy coordinator. Jang says that is not going to happen,
although all three areas will work together.

Jang also says one important role for the advocate would be to report
publicly on the progress that is being made. And VPD's Car 87
supervisor Sgt. Bill Pake agrees. He says any time light can be shone
on this problem "we are happy to see that."

Staff is already working on a mental health plan for the city. We
should get a report back on this within the month.