NEW ADDICTIONS OUTREACH SERVICE FOR YOUTH

Hope Community Services counselors see their newly expanded drug
outreach services cutting waiting lists and reaching youths where they
feel most comfortable - out of a formal office setting.

"Outreach is an important addition to prevention and treatment
services for youth in the community," said Maureen Wood, health
services administrator for Fraser Health. "At that pivotal point in
their lives, youth can find support out in the community where they're
are most comfortable."

The service will be provided by Hope Community Services and is funded
by Fraser Health and the Ministry for Children and Family
Development.

A newly-hired youth addictions outreach counselor will meet youths in
places convenient to them, whether at home or in a restaurant, as
traditional office-style settings can pose barriers to youths
accessing health services. The outreach counselor can provide a range
of services for youth:

* addictions counseling

* prevention activities

* education

* assistance accessing detox and residential treatment
placements.

"We also have new members joining our team in our existing
school-based prevention and outpatient clinic programs," said Maclynne
Bourquin, executive director of Hope Community Services.

The school-based prevention program will now be concentrating on
prevention activities with youth attending Hope Secondary School and
its feeder schools. The addictions outpatient clinic will provide
adult counseling services in the Hope area, and counseling services
for all age groups in the outlying areas and Boston Bar.

To contact the Youth Addictions Outreach worker, call Sarah Watson at
604-869-8500.

To contact the School Based Prevention worker, Adel Klassen, or the
Outpatient Clinician, Erin O'Neil, call 604-869-2466, between 1 pm and
4 pm on Mondays to Thursdays. The outpatient clinician is now offering
orientation sessions, Tuesday evenings 5 pm to 7 pm and Thursday
mornings 11 am to 1 pm.

"We have a lot of high risk youth in the community, says Steve Conway
the new program's coordinator. And although there are no hard and fast
statistics available on drug use among Hope youth, in the past
counselling resources would be stretched so thin a youth seeking help
would have to be put on a three to six week waiting list, added Bourquin.

Outreach programs, adds Conway are considered the most successful
model of reaching youth for out within their own community, youth do
not feel they are being forced into something, or intimidated by
office setting; "throw a wider net and catch more kids."

"I know in other communities people have reported that there are youth
using crystal meth as young as eleven. It is a scary drug that affects
brain growth and if that is happening in other communities it is
happening here," adds Conway.

The program is available to anyone up to the age of 25 seeking help.