DETOX, SUPPORT BEDS FILL GAPS IN ADDICTIONS SERVICE

Nine drug and alcohol detox that may be open by mid-May at Chilliwack
General Hospital will bring addiction services closer to home and help get
people into treatment sooner.

In addition, six support and recovery beds for women and six more for men
should be open in Abbotsford in May, said Sherry Mumford, Fraser Heath
Authority advisor on mental health and addictions. All of these new beds
will open to those in the FHA region.

"I'm excited and I look forward to announcing this site is open and that
site is open. It's been a long time coming. We're making some gains here,
we're filling the gaps," she said Friday.

Mumford said the FHA is hiring staff and pushing to have a mid-May opening.

For more than two years, FHA addiction and mental health services have been
working closely together to respond to the increasingly complex needs of
those with addictions, she said.

There is more polydrug use, or use of several street and pharmaceutical
drugs, by addicts than in the past, and addictions are often complicated by
mental health conditions, said Mumford.

To this end, the FHA put the detox beds in a hospital setting where clients
are close to medical support.

"It's a new model. It provides us with the opportunity to deal with people
who have medically compromised conditions, such as bleeding ulcers," said
Mumford. Putting the detox beds in Chilliwack also brings services closer
to those who can't travel to the New Westminster Maple Cottage detox clinic.

While the funding is for 10 beds, there is room for only nine on the floor
the detox unit shares with the subacute care ward. The detox unit may move
to another site in the hospital.

Kinghaven will add the men's support and treatment beds to their services
in the first week of May. The Elizabeth Fry Society has the contract to
manage the women's support and treatment beds but were still working on a
location in Abbotsford, Mumford said.

The new detox beds will bring the FHA total to 35 beds. One of the beds in
Chilliwack will be a swing bed available for youth, those under 19.

Maple Cottage has 25 beds, with up to four of those set aside for youth.

When Maple Cottage moves to Surrey next fall, it will have six beds set
aside for youth in their own segregated setting with programs geared for
that age group, said Mumford.

The FHA is also looking at establishing a youth residential treatment
facility, said Mumford.

Currently, the FHA has about seven outpatient clinics for youth in the
Fraser East region in communities from Mission to Hope.