Health and harm-reduction services for those suffering from severe addictions and mental-health problems will be expanded and based out of two downtown Victoria hubs.
The Access Health Centre on Johnson Street and the Withdrawal Management complex (Sobering Centre) at Cook and Pembroke streets will reach out to about 100 of the most vulnerable people in downtown Victoria.
The plan includes case managers who will track clients even when they are in hospital or in jail and reconnect them with services ranging from clean needles to housing.
A new outreach team will support clients on the street or in shelters.
When clients come into one of the hubs, whether for a bandage or clean drug supplies, the goal is to connect them with other services.
The public will notice a difference on the streets as the additional care is phased in over the next 12 to 18 months, said Victoria Coun. Marianne Alto.
"These really are some of the hardest to reach, hardest to treat and hardest to find [people]," she said.
They also cause a disproportionate amount of disruption in the community, she said.
"If we can solve the problems of this very small group of people, the outcomes are going to be extraordinary."
Murray Fyfe, medical health officer for the Vancouver Island Health Authority, said health-care providers, local government, police and community agencies have been working together for the past year to come up with better ways to serve the "hard-to-reach" population.
"The outreach team will engage with clients that are not accessing any services right now and, when they're ready to go in, will start working with them at one of the centres until they're stabilized and in treatment and recovery," Fyfe said.
However, he acknowledged the route may not always be easy.
"Everyone is going to have a different path. It may not be a continuum with one-way movement."
Harm-reduction supplies, such as clean needles, will be handed out at both hubs, and hours at the Cook and Pembroke site will be expanded to include evenings and weekends.
Supplies will continue to be distributed at other locations, as they have been since the Cormorant Street needle exchange closed amid controversy in 2008, said Cheryl Damstetter, VIHA acting executive director for mental-health services.
The new services will cost VIHA an additional $500,000, while some existing mental-health and addictions funding will be shifted to focus programs on the hard-to-reach population. Additional funds will come from the $1.2 million VIHA spends annually on contracting out harm-reduction services.
The Access Health Centre is at 713 Johnson St., while the Sobering Centre is at 1125 Pembroke St.
