HELP IS CLOSE TO HOME

In a telephone book-sized strategy paper produced by the North Shore Task
Force on Substance Abuse in 2002, one of the stated goals was to offer
local treatment for those struggling with substance abuse.

Soon, as a result of diligent work by the task force and Vancouver Coastal
Health, youth and adults who are battling drugs and alcohol will no longer
have to leave the North Shore for treatment. As early as November, a new
daytime addiction treatment facility - known as "daytox" -will open at 15th
and Lonsdale.

The facility will offer day addiction programs for youth and adult who are
in stable living situations that enable them to return to their homes in
the evenings after undergoing addiction treatment.

The centre, run by Vancouver Coastal Health, is expected to cost $750,000
in a truncated 2005 fiscal year and $1 million the following year.

The new facility will offer detox, rehab and crisis response with medical
and psychiatric support.

Programs at the new facility will include monitored drug withdrawal
services and counseling sessions.

Those who understand the scope of addiction on the North Shore have long
lamented the lack of drug treatment programs in North or West Vancouver.

Barnabas Walther, director of mental health and addiction services for
Vancouver Coastal Health, said the facility is an important step for the
North Shore.

"I think it's essential. The epidemiological information suggests that we
would have a sufficient size of population in West Vancouver and North
Vancouver and the surrounding areas to warrant addiction programs," he
noted. "So if we don't have those things then those people are going to
have to go downtown for appropriate programs services.

"But for some programs we don't have the critical mass to be able to
reasonably provide those services on the North Shore.

Back in 2000, The North Shore Task Force on Substance Abuse was created to
create a comprehensive substance abuse strategy for the North Shore. It
includes representatives from North and West Van, Bowen Island, Lions Bay,
Squamish Nation and Tsleil-Waututh Nation, both school districts and police.

One of the top priorities was to develop treatment "on or near the North
Shore for adults and youth."

District of North Vancouver Coun. Maureen McKeon Holmes has been on the
task force since it's inception. She says one of the biggest frustrations
all along has been a dearth of funding for treatment .

"The big aspect of it was treatment and that was missing," McKeon Holmes
noted. "Without the treatment aspect of it, you're not moving ahead at all.
There's a myth that there isn't a drug problem on the North Shore.

The co-chair of the task force added the opening of a new facility in North
Vancouver comes as welcome news.

"Our [residents] won't have to go somewhere else," she said.

The task force's other co-chair, West Vancouver Coun. Pam Goldsmith-Jones,
is also pleased about the soon-to-be-opened facility in North Vancouver.

"There will also be a huge outreach component," explained Goldsmith-Jones.
"This is a real breakthrough.

Staff from the new facility will spend time working at already existing
agencies on the North Shore to maintain consistency when screening,
assessing individuals for admittance into the facility.

While many have lobbied for a longer-term treatment facility for North and
West Vancouver, the daytox is an important step on the North Shore,
especially at a time when crystal meth has become so prevalent among youth
and young adults.

"The thing you need right away is a daytox treatment when you're ready. We
want to have no waiting time for people on the North Shore for that," said
Goldsmith-Jones.

Currently, there is a formal agreement in place between facilities
throughout Vancouver Coastal Health that allows clients who have finished
receiving daytox to check into the next appropriate place for the next
stage in their treatment, she said.

Added Walther, "If you're looking at long-term medical detox and programs
like that we don't have the critical mass [on the North Shore] to provide
sufficient enough people who have that need to keep something like that
active the whole time.

He continued, "So it would be better for them to go to an existing program
downtown and we've worked out protocols to allow that to occur so when they
are finished at that phase of their program they can move smoothly into the
day program that exists here rather than being engaged in a day program in
Vancouver. When a person is ready to deal with their issue we need to be
there for them."