Pubdate: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2001 The Vancouver Sun Page: B1 Contact: 200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3 Fax: (604) 605-2323 Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/ Author: Steve Mertl PROVINCE TO REVAMP SERVICES TO ADDICTS Local Communities To Play Bigger Role British Columbia which spends more per person to deal with addiction than any other province, is revamping the way it delivers services to addicts. Local communities will play a bigger role in tackling addiction to everything from cigarettes to drugs and gambling, the government said Friday in Vancouver. The province spends about $100 million a year on addiction prevention and treatment, about $24 per capita. "What we need to do is spend those dollars in a way which is much more effective," said Deputy Premier Joy MacPhail, who headed a year-long review that produced a half-dozen recommendations aimed at keeping addicts from getting lost in the bureaucracies of nine B.C. ministries that deal with them. The government will set up a provincial centre for addiction knowledge and practice - funded with a $10-million endowment - that will work with all affected ministries to find ways of delivering their services. "This is a revolutionary approach to addiction programming, moving the focus from the ministries that deliver the programs directly to the communities where the programs are needed," Premier Ujjal Dosanjh said. The review's recommendations dealt mostly with process, but a general one that deals with harm reduction could open the door to the controversial issue of safe drug-injection sights. The proposal is hotly debated in Vancouver, where alleys and doorways in the poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside have become open-air shooting galleries. MacPhail said the task group that conducted the review didn't address the question of what were appropriate services, leaving specifics up to local community needs. That doesn't rule out safe-injection sites, she said. "If the community determines that, if it's effective in assisting the community with addictions and the outcomes to deal with addictions, then yes," she said. The transition to the new addictions strategy will take about two years, aided by a new addictions council that will help set the goals, set research priorities and measure the success fo the programs. The change means the ministries will work more closely with affected locales, "and the policies will be rooted in the community," said MacPhail. "It will also mean that fewer people fall through the cracks." The new addictions council is crucial to ensuring government-funded programs meet their goals, MacPhail said. How success will be measured remains to be seen. MacPhail said it will be up to individual communities to set their own standards. Philanthropist Edgar Kaiser, whose Kaiser Youth Foundation helped prepare the review, said measuring outcomes is crucial. "If we're spending dollars in a given field, what are we getting for it, does it work?" he said. "And if it doesn't work, then what do we do to improve it?" Children and Families Minister Ed John supported the local approach, saying studies elsewhere show that fighting addiction is more successful when people are treated in their own communities. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager