Twenty-eight of 100 publicly funded treatment and recovery beds for adults with drug and alcohol addictions set to open in the province are on Vancouver Island.
“To have 28 out of the 100 beds announced today all being on Vancouver Island is a real milestone for us, locally,” B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Sheila Malcolmson, MLA for Nanaimo, said in an interview Tuesday.
The 100 new beds, provided through 14 organizations, include 46 new spaces in existing treatment and recovery organizations, and 54 beds converted from private-pay beds to fully funded public ones for people who cannot afford private rates.
Some of the beds will be up and running this spring, said Malcolmson, while others will take longer while contracts are put in place. “We are all feeling the urgency to attend to this part of the solution to the overdose crisis and working as quickly as we can to have these spaces open all across the province for the people who are ready to step up for addiction treatment.”
Last year, the province announced $36 million for 123 new beds for youth, and $13.5 million for 50 to 70 new beds for adults. The latter has increased to 100. The Island will have 23 “supportive recovery” beds, including two at the Comox Valley Transition Society, 15 at the John Howard Society in Nanaimo and six at the Port Alberni Shelter Society.
Supportive recovery is a place where people can access community treatment while transitioning to a more stable lifestyle, or can stay before or after residential treatment, according to the ministry. New Roads Therapeutic Recovery in View Royal is an example.
Five publicly funded residential treatment beds will be provided at for-profit Edgewood Treatment Centre in Nanaimo.
Residential treatment offers live-in intensive treatment that ranges from 30 to 90 days.
Joel Hughes, clinical director of Edgewood Treatment Centre, said the announcement is timely, as the pandemic has had a grave effect on people with addictions.
“The social isolation felt by so many over this past year has had a disastrous impact on those suffering with substance-use challenges in our province,” Hughes said in a statement. “This increase in beds will provide the necessary treatment for so many at a very crucial time and will most definitely save lives and help put families back together.”
There is no government-funded residential treatment centre in Victoria.
