Province to begin helping those who can’t help themselves
Safe communities are fundamental to all of us. We need to feel safe if we’re going to reach our potential at work and at home. However, the ongoing opioid crisis continues to impact every neighbourhood and has become especially visible in pockets of larger cities. We’re seeing more people struggling with addiction and mental health who are unable to secure immediate access to treatment options.
This week’s news that the provincial government is stepping up to provide care for people unable to care for themselves is overdue.
“Yes, people need to have agency over their lives but people also need to be kept safe from predators and people should not have to live in dangerous environments,” Chamber CEO Bruce Williams said. “We believe there are times when the healthcare system needs to intervene in a person’s life so that person has a chance to recover before it’s too late.”
The province’s shift to enabling involuntary care will start on the Lower Mainland and use correctional facilities to provide care under the Mental Health Act. The aim is to help people with addiction challenges, brain injuries and mental-health issues stabilize and rebuild their lives. Facilities on the Island and across BC are being planned.
“The toxic-drug crisis of today is not what it was 10 or even five years ago,” BC’s Minister of Mental Health and Addictions said in a media release. “We are now facing a rising number of people who are living with the lasting effects of multiple overdoses and complex mental-health challenges, tied to social factors like poverty and trauma.”
The province also called on the federal government to step up border enforcement around screening shipping containers arriving in Canada to curb the smuggling of chemical precursors used to make illicit fentanyl.
