there will be new residential treatment beds for women in the interior and island health regions, and a new sobering centre in prince george.
experts in the field say the announcement means b.c. is setting the standard for addiction treatment in canada.
“currently, there is no clear path, unlike if you have a heart attack — it’s emergency care, then treatment then maybe an operation to have your ticker replaced, same with for cancer and same with a myriad of other health problems — but not yet for addiction treatment,” said bill macewan, a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction. “this is the first step towards that.”
as a founder of the rapid access addiction clinic at st. paul’s hospital, which provides detox, safe-drug-supply treatment and access to community treatment, monitoring and support, macewan knows there is no on-demand public addiction treatment available in b.c. now, but he believes the province’s spending will lead to true systemic change.
“if a person is in detox, for example, there is no guarantee where you will go next,” he explained. “how do you have that cushion within the system so there is something for you in between? the natural thing would be to go drink or use drugs again and if this person is homeless, where would they live? this a situation where people are turned back into their spots in sros, where there are drugs and other stressors, so they’re right back into that.”