ADDICTIONS COUNSELLOR WOULD LIKE TO SEE LOCAL INITIATIVES FUNDED

While "more is better" when it comes to provincial funding for youth
addictions staff and treatment beds, a SHARE Family and Community
Services addictions counsellor would like to see part of that money
go towards local initiatives.

Jennifer Turnbrook, the supervisor for youth addictions services at
SHARE, said that while the Fraser Health Authority's new $2 million
to spend on curbing crystal meth addictions will be well spent, she'd
like to see some of the money go towards a homegrown initiative.

"It's on the mark in the sense that there are going to be people
dedicated to the issues that communities see as current," she said.
"I think what they've chosen so far, it seems really good to me.
That's the one place where we struggle, is really responding to the
high demand for youth addiction services."

The trouble with addressing just crystal meth, Turnbrook said, is
that the trends among young clients coming to SHARE for substance
abuse counselling are primarily misusing alcohol, marijuana and cocaine.

The Fraser Health Authority will receive $1.96 million from the
Ministry of Health to treat crystal meth dependency and to bolster
harm prevention - with the money going towards long-term residential
treatment beds, addictions specialists, clinicians, youth workers and
education campaigns.

Programs with annual funding of $558,558 include hiring six youth
outreach workers specifically to help with early identification and
treatment of crystal meth users, as well as prevention and harm
reduction measures.

The money will also be going towards working with communities to
determine what they need with respect to youth addictions treatment -
which is something, Turnbrook said, the three local municipalities
are on top of.

"I think that a lot of communities are moving towards the local
response, not looking to any one individual, any one service provider
or any one aspect of the community to be the answer," she said. "We
are better, our services are enhanced when we all come together. I
think in that sense, more is better.

"It needs to be a community response to a community issue, and I
think the Tri-Cities do that particularly well. I think we really get
the concept. We're still working on how to do it. I don't think any
person can say, 'I know exactly what it is,' but I think the
community gets that idea and is working very hard in that direction."

Turnbrook said she would like provincial officials to recognize how
valuable the local initiative to build a youth housing, drop-in and
service centre - called Youth Matters! Place - would be to addressing
addictions.

"Youth Matters! Place is one-stop shopping. Potentially it will have
the majority of youth services in one location," she said. "It's been
a long time in coming, and it's been in and out of vogue as an idea.
But we as a community, we are really far along in the process of
making that happen."

With partners consisting of SHARE, the Ministry of Children and
Family Development, School District 43, the Ministry of Attorney
General and other service organizations, Youth Matters! is proposing
to build a centre that would afford at-risk youth not only safe
housing, but access to a variety of services - like drug addiction counselling.

"I don't think that is where that money is going to be earmarked by
any stretch," she said. "But if you were to ask me what I think would
make a difference, I think (Youth Matters! Place) would make a
difference, not just for crystal meth, but for any young person who's
engaged in high-risk activity."

While the funding isn't in place for the youth centre and Turnbrook
doubts the new addictions funding will be allocated to Youth Matters!
Place, she is hopeful.

"Any services that are about people, usually the response is
resource-intensive," she said. "With addictions, it's
resource-intensive and, yes, it costs money.

"But addictions cost our communities and our provinces so, so much
money. The amount of money that addictions issues cost, if that's the
only thing you look at, is unbelievable in terms of people's lost
wages at work or reduction in gross national product or productivity.

"Those are things that are more easily calculated than personal
situations, like family heartbreak or family disintegration or
results of long-term, high-risk living, which are harder to measure
but seem not to be attended to as much as cost.

"But the cost of addictions is huge, if you look at all the arms of it."