HEALTH AUTHORITY STREAMLINING HELP FOR ADDICTS

Drug addicts will soon be able to receive one-stop treatment-everything
from counselling to HIV treatment-at eight community health clinics dotted
throughout the city.

Viviana Zanocco, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority,
said the authority's successful one-stop pilot project at Evergreen Health
Centre, 3425 Crowley Dr., will be used as a model for its other health clinics.

Until last fall, addiction, mental health and HIV/AIDS services in
Vancouver were controlled by different provincial government health
departments. Those services are now controlled solely by Vancouver Coastal
Health.

"Before we had hospitals here, mental health there and addictions services
somewhere else. They were little silos and they didn't talk to each other,"
Zanocco said. Under the new model, an addict can go to a health centre and
receive mental health support, begin treatment for HIV and take advantage
of five addiction services: home detox, needle exchange, methadone
treatment, counselling and education.

Zanocco said the authority is shifting its focus away from residential
detox, where addicts are kept in facilities 24 hours a day, and replacing
it with day-only or home-based detox.

"Most people think of treatment as residential detox and that's not so.
There are many different options. Residential detox isn't appropriate for
everybody. We are doing home withdrawal now for people who are living with
a responsible adult, a friend or partner."

With home detox, a nurse visits the home each day to provide medical
support and advice. Sixty per cent of addicts are considered good
candidates for the program.

With day detox, the addict goes to Vancouver Detox and receives support,
but is able to return home at night.

Zanocco said the authority wants to move its addiction services out of the
Downtown Eastside to better reflect the physical distribution of addicts in
the city.

"We estimate 90 per cent of addicts live outside the Downtown Eastside and
they aren't all injection drug users. There are other addictions-pills,
alcohol, cocaine, lots of things, and the users are throughout Vancouver."

However, an estimated half of the city's 8,000 injection drug users live in
the Downtown Eastside, a key reason why the authority opened its supervised
injection site on the 100-block of East Hastings Street.

Zanocco said there are no plans to increase the number of residential detox
beds in the city, now totalling 55.

Don MacPherson, the city's drug policy coordinator, said he's pleased that
the health authority is giving addicts more options, but noted it's not
planning to spend more money on addiction services. He said lack of
treatment in the city is a significant issue, particularly for youth, and
an extra $20 to $30 million a year is needed to ensure treatment services
are available for all addicts.

Vancouver Coastal Health will offer addiction services by the end of the
year at Ravensong Community Health Centre, 2450 Ontario St.; Pacific Spirit
Community Health Centre, 2110 West 43rd Ave.; Three Bridges Community
Health Services, 1292 Hornby St.; Downtown Community Health Centre, 569
Powell St.; North Community Health Centre, 1651 Commercial Dr.; South
Community Health Office, 6405 Knight St.; and Pender Community Health
Centre, 59 West Pender St.

The authority will hold an information session on its new addiction
services model at the Kerrisdale Community Centre, 5851 West Boulevard, on
Jan. 24, between 1 and 3 p.m.