B.C. to provide more addiction and mental health services in Interior region

The B.C. government announced more mental health and substance use services for Kamloops and the Okanagan region this week, following the province's release of illicit drug death data last week.

On Monday, the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions said it will work with Interior Health to add four new mental health and substance use services, expand four others, and recruit 19 full-time workers to provide mental health support services in Vernon and surrounding communities.

On Tuesday, the ministry said it will work with Kelowna-based non-profit Bridge Youth and Family Services Society to provide 22 new adult beds for substance use treatment, as well as with Interior Health and B.C. Housing to provide complex care housing in Kamloops and Kelowna for people living with mental health and substance use issues.

The province said some of these new services will be available as early as next month.

These announcements were made after the B.C. Coroners Service said Friday that 207 people died in January due to toxic substances, which reflects the third-highest number of drug overdose fatalities in a calendar month.

The latest data shows there have been notable increases in smaller- and medium-sized communities. Kamloops and Kelowna recorded 11 and eight deaths respectively in January, making them two of the top five municipalities affected by illicit drug toxicity.

Mental Health and Addictions Minister Sheila Malcolmson says the province is trying to provide support at every intersection with the addiction and mental health services announced this week.

"There isn't any one path into addiction," she said Tuesday on CBC's Daybreak South. "We're adding substance use support across the continuum."

Out of the 22 new adult treatment beds offered in Kelowna, 13 will be dedicated to detox and nine for transition and stabilization care. The B.C. government says these beds, an addition to the existing 3,200 publicly-funded treatment beds across the province, are part of the $500 million investment on addiction care promised in the budget announced last month.

"We're trying to patch all these holes in the system and we aren't all the way there yet, but we're working hard every day," Malcolmson said.

On Thursday, the B.C. Coroners Service released a report calling on the province to develop a policy to distribute a safer supply of drugs and offer better health support, with a plan that would see action taken within the next 90 days.

Jessica Lamb, who works with drug user advocacy group Ankors in the Kootenays, said while this recommendation gives her some hope, there are very few health professionals available in her region who can prescribe safe supply to users.

"If these were implemented in our communities, I do believe that the death toll would would change or go down," said Lamb on CBC's Daybreak South.

Malcolmson says the province won't give people the false hope of a quick turnaround, but it feels the urgency to fix the problem.