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Moving forward

Alcohol and drug treatment options insufficient, additional services needed in Pemberton valley

A consultant hired to examine the feasibility of a drug and alcohol treatment facility in Pemberton and Mount Currie has found that the communities do, in fact, need additional services to help with substance abuse problems.

Rick FitzZaland, president of NG Bach & Associates, says there is an undeniable issue with drug and alcohol abuse within the communities, which will require stronger recovery programs than are currently available.

“I think we’re looking at a physical facility, but the community has to say that,” he said this week.

“Maybe they’ve got space that they want to reallocate, maybe they want to re-use the space that they’ve got in a different way… but I believe that they probably need a new facility for that.”

While FitzZaland says “on paper” there is a sufficient service network for alcohol and drug services throughout the corridor, that isn’t actually the case.

“In reality, there are huge barriers for the people in Pemberton and Mount Currie to access those services in a timely fashion, and with alcohol and drug treatment particularly, a long waiting list destroys the effectiveness of the program.”

He explained that once people are at the stage of admitting they have a problem and taking steps to deal with it, they then must go on a lengthy waiting list, often waiting for months, to begin detox.

Once they manage to get into detox, they must then wait again to get into a support recovery program.

Existing services also require people to leave their communities and often, their families, to enter treatment programs in Squamish, Vancouver, the Okanagan or Vancouver Island. This is especially problematic for parents who want to enter treatment and recovery programs — in many cases, they are forced to choose between getting healthy and caring for their children.

“There are just so many barriers,” said FitzZaland. “It’s not that it can’t be done, but it takes a Herculean effort on the part of the person seeking recovery and their families.”

FitzZaland, who was hired by the Winds of Change Committee earlier this year to conduct the study, said the current situation is people from Pemberton and Mount Currie may find themselves sobering up in Squamish Hospital, or voluntarily being locked up at the local jail, both of which are inadequate strategies.

While FitzZaland’s study is part of the committee’s attempt to improve services within the region — one of the 13 recommendations identified in the initial Winds of Change report compiled in 2004 — he emphasized that the community must continue to move forward with the 12 other recommendations, and not simply focus on treatment.

“It’s a package — it has to be done in an integrated way.”

He says a system has to be developed that works within the reality of each community’s needs, and takes into account their respective location and size. A co-operative facility for the two communities should be established at a later date, but for now, each community needs to focus on its immediate needs.

“What we’re seeing is that the needs in the two communities are different. There are some shared needs — there’s no doubt about it — and there are recommendations in the 13 recommendations that address those shared needs.”

In Mount Currie, they are recommending the development of a centre that uses a “fully community-integrated, family-based model,” which focuses on creating opportunities for elders and youth, and building the community, not just treating alcohol and drug addiction. By strengthening the community as a whole, FitzZaland says, Mount Currie would create an environment that is conducive to dealing with existing problems, and preventing future substance abuse issues.

“It starts to make it more doable, and also probably a lot more effective because you’re building the community at the same time.”

They are also proposing a “daytox” program for the area — essentially a day program for sobering — which would allow people to stay within the community and receive support from the centre’s outreach services.

A proposed private operation based just outside of Squamish, called the Paradise Valley Centre for Change, could be another option for residential treatment. FitzZaland says the private facility is still in the approval process, but if their program moves ahead, they have offered 12 spaces per year to the corridor, and would work with local communities to see how their program could fit within each community’s treatment model.

For Pemberton, FitzZaland suggests there should be a support recovery house, so there would be one at each end of the corridor: in Squamish and in Pemberton.

FitzZaland presented his organization’s draft recommendations at the joint Winds of Change committee meeting on Oct. 9, and says he and members of the WOC committee were eager to get residents’ feedback at public open houses in Pemberton and Mount Currie on Wednesday and Thursday evenings this week. FitzZaland says they plan to incorporate this feedback into their recommendations, and will present their revised findings — complete with a business case and funding requirements — to municipal council for approval in mid-November.

“What we heard — and very clearly — was people really do want a plan and they’re prepared that maybe it’s got a few blemishes, but they want to keep moving forward; they want to keep the momentum.”