*My social justice activist friend, Crystal, was interviewed for this article.*

As the City of Victoria conducts what outreach workers say are deadly sweeps of Pandora Avenue, those who facilitate unhoused individuals into addiction rehabilitation centres say there’s not enough spaces to meet the needs of those who are left on the capital city’s streets.

“What I’m faced with is, where am I sending them?” said Theresa Reeve, executive director of the relatively new non-profit Westcoast Recovery Outreach.

Reeve says private treatment centres only take a select number of government-funded clients, leaving empty beds open for higher paying private clients.

“I could fill up their treatment centre if they would allow me,” said Reeve. “But they only let a few government-funded beds. We need to increase those government funded beds. These people deserve a chance just like everybody else.”

“People having to wait anywhere from two weeks to three months waiting to get into a detox bed is not acceptable. We need a better system now. We just had an election about. Where are all the beds they promised they were going to build?”

The Minister of Health told CHEK News in a statement that her government is adding new services without specifics.

https://cheknews.ca/not-enough-housing-or-rehab-beds-for-victorias-most-broken-says-outreach-worker-1228846/

#BCpoli #YYJpoli #BuildSocialHousing #BChousing #HousingCrisis #OutreachWorkers #FrontlineWorkers #RehabBedsNeeded #BCHealth #AddictionsTreatment #YYJ #VictoriaBC #CutTheRedTape #AccessToTreatment #HelpTheHomeless #HouseTheHomeless #BCNDP #HumanRights #AddictsAreHumans #StopTheStigma #HelpTheMarginalized #StopJudgingStartHelping #VancouverIsland #VanIsle #OurCommunityIncludesHomeless

The revelations about the government’s numbers were also frustrating for Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau.

“This government — and in particular when it comes to anything to do with health care — loves rolling out a whole bunch of numbers that they think are going to somehow convince people that what they're experiencing in their communities isn't real,” she told the IJF.

But she said she was exhausted by the other parties’ deflection on the issue, and by their shared push for involuntary care. She described secured treatment facilities as the “the most expensive end of the continuum of care” for substance use disorders, and said they are not well supported by the evidence.

“We are starving for access to preventive and proactive mental health care services in this province, and we hear again and again from parents who say ‘I couldn't get help from my child when they needed it,’” Furstenau said.

“The response of both Eby and Rustad is to say, well, we'll wait until that person is in absolutely the worst state of crisis and then we'll force them into involuntary care. It makes no sense.”

https://theijf.org/bc-parties-trade-blame-after-addiction-treatment-bed-investigation

#BCpoli #ElectionsBC2024 #BCVotes2024 #BCElection2024 #ImVotingGreen #NeverVoteConservative #NeverVoteNeoliberal #EthicalVoters #BritishColumbia #CDNpoli #PublicHealth #AddictionsTreatment #MentalHealth #MedicalCare #HumanRights #HealthCare #PatientRights #BCGreenParty #BCgovernment #HarmReductionSavesLives #FundMentalHealthCare #FundTransitionalHousing #FundCommunityCareVillages