CHILLIWACK MAKES HARM REDUCTION WORK

After 10 years of operation in downtown Chilliwack, the Fraser Valley
Connection is just a part of the community. It offers education, health and
counselling services to intravenous drug addicts and includes a methadone
clinic and a needle exchange.

"Basically we're swell in Chilliwack. The business community has actually
been very supportive. They agree it fills a need in the community," said
Chilliwack city Coun. Mel Folkman this week.

He's a member of an advisory group that includes health professionals,
businesspeople and Sam Mohan, director of the Connection.

The group is key in bringing together groups so they can understand each
other's needs. Education is a big component of that relationship, said Folkman.

Neither he nor Lettie Tam, executive director of Chilliwack's business
improvement association, can recall any recent complaints.

The program is downtown. There's no problem with loitering or littered
needles, he said.

"I haven't had a compliant or a concern in the last three years. I
attribute that to strong leadership from [Mohan]."

September will mark 10 years the Fraser Valley Connection has been open.
With two counsellors and 10 trained volunteers, it offers services and hope
to intravenous drug users in Chilliwack. Sometimes clients come from
Abbotsford, where such "harm reduction strategies" were banned by the city
council on Jan. 27.

The FVC is funded with $63,536 a year by the Fraser Health Authority; a
bargain compared to the deaths, suffering, crime and the roughly $150,000 a
year it costs to keep an AIDS patient alive, said Mohan.

Her response to Abbotsford council's decision to ban harm reduction is
direct: "You don't know what you're doing - you're killing people. Nobody
wants to be an addict.

"The BIA was open enough to learn and to educate themselves. They work with
us, not against. You have to work with businesses and residences in the
community," she said.

Among its various services, the needle exchange plays a small but key role,
says Mohan. Its goal is to stem the spread of infections of hepatitis C and
HIV and to get drug addicts a little closer to treatment.

"The needle exchange is only about 10 per cent of what we do. It's
successful because it's part of an integrated program. If you want the
individual to get off the harmful behavior, you need other services in
place," said Mohan.

Mohan identifies four phases her clients go through before they get clean.
The first step is to get them in the door. They're taught to tend to
abscesses from using dirty needles and how to test their drugs so they
don't overdose.

IV drug users get clean needles they're required to return. Mohan keeps
meticulous records for monthly and annual reports to the health authority.
These show a syringe return rate that hovers around 100 per cent.

The next phase involve lots of trust building and education.

"It's a slow process. They don't trust anybody behind a desk, they have no
confidence, no self-esteem. Most [addicts] haven't learned basic coping
skills you or I have. They take drugs to deal with a crisis. They have to
learn all that stuff," Mohan said.

Along with trust comes hope. Only then are they ready to be referred to
detox, treatment, doctors, Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous and other
counsellors.

The fourth step is second stage recovery - after six months of being clean,
a recovering addict is invited back to Connections. They answer phones and
work on the other side of the counter where their friends can see they made it.

"If you offered the addicts one wish, I bet 99 per cent would say 'I don't
want to be addicted.' It's not so hard once you offer people options," she
said.