ADDICTIONS A HEALTH ISSUE, SAYS MINISTER

South Saanich MLA Susan Brice says her role is to keep the issue of mental
health and addictions prominent.

She joined the cabinet in February as the minister of state for mental
health and addiction service, so named to emphasis the close relationship
between the two health issues.

In fact, says Brice, 70 per cent of people seeking help for addiction at
the community level are dealing with a mental health problem. "The logic is
that (when) people feel hideous, if they self-medicate, they can make
themselves feel better in the short term," she says, referring to drug and
alcohol use.

Historically, one of the most frustrating catch-22s for people who work
with addiction issues was that the illness was treated differently:
addiction treatment centres didn't accept people with mental illness, while
hospitals didn't accept people with addictions.

"One of my jobs is to make sure that each of the health authorities does
keep these two issues high on the agenda," says Brice. This is hard to do
when things like heart attacks pre-empt treatment for chronic problems like
alcoholism, she says.

Brice may have a long way to go in Saanich.

Rev. Al Tysick, of the Open Door Street Ministry, says there are no
addiction treatment centres in Saanich and the two in Victoria do not take
people with mental illness.

What this means is, for example, if a Gordon Head teen develops a mental
illness - such as anxiety, depression or schizophrenia - and then
self-medicates with drugs and alcohol, there likely to end up on the street
in Victoria.

Tysick helps people in this sort of situation. He says once someone hits
the downtown streets, only a lucky few make it back over the municipal
border for treatment at the Eric Martin Pavilion, the mental health unit at
the Royal Jubilee hospital.

Tysick knows what he is talking about. Last year, he buried 54 Open Door
regulars - many of whom died from drug overdoses.

However, he says he has noticed a difference in the last six months. Ever
since Victoria hospitals began working with a duo-diagnosis model. In
theory, hospital care workers will treat people suffering from problems
with mental health or addiction - or both.

"They have a more welcoming, more accepting model," he says. "I like the
direction they're going in. But, because of a shortage of beds and budget,
they tend to only treat people with mental illness."

Chronic alcoholics with mental illness, especially, are falling through the
cracks.

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"Getting them into EMI is next to impossible, getting them in to treatment
is next to impossible because they come with mental health issues," Tysick
says, alluding to the old dilemma.

"There is a theory and a reality which is going on. Getting in with
dual-diagnosis is still very difficult," he says.

There are ways for drug addicts and chronic alcoholics to get help in
Greater Victoria. People can usually approach a councillor, from an
outreach program such as the Native Friendship Centre or the Open Door, who
will try to get the user into treatment in Victoria or up-Island.

There are two treatment centres in the city with 28-day programs based on
the Alcoholics Anonymous model, which doesn't account for people with
mental illness using drugs and alcohol to self medicate. People with
duo-diagnosis don't make it past the means test, says Tysick.

The other problem is space.

"Nothing is sudden," says Tysick. When a person decides to straighten out,
there is nowhere to go right away for help. Instead, they have to maintain
their conviction for at least a month.

First, the person needs to make a doctor's appointment for a referral.
Then, there's a four-week waiting-list for one of five beds at the downtown
detox centre. After detox, there's unlikely to be a bed in a Victoria
treatment centre, which means a trip up-Island or over to Vancouver.

Clearly there is still room to improve and to gap the bridge between mental
illness and addictions, says Tysick, confident things are getting better.

He says he likes the new direction taken by the Vancouver Island Health
Authority. And he hopes, one day, the South Island will have a centre
specifically designed to treat the 70 per cent of addicts who also have a
mental illness.