Pubdate: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 Source: Victoria News (CN BC) Copyright: 2002 Victoria News Contact: http://www.vicnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1267 Author: Trish Audette TREATMENT CENTRE'S DAYS NUMBERED Martin Spray, the executive director of the Victoria Life Enrichment Society (VLES), is fighting hard to keep the society's residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation services from going under. VLES offers the only non-profit residential rehabilitation for patients suffering from drug and alcohol addictions on the Island. At the end of May, the Vancouver Island Health Authority announced that provincial funding for the program will cease at the end of this month, on July 31. "We've got people whose lives, in many respects, are on the line," Spray said between a lunch meeting with Liberal Victoria-Beacon Hill MLA Jeff Bray and a telephone call from provincial Human Resources Minister Murray Coell (Saanich-North and the Islands). Spray is trying to contact every minister in the province to lobby support, and he is working to publicize the society's program and its closure. Already, 27 people who were preparing to receive care at VLES in July have been turned away. "The fallout for this is huge," said Linda Lendrum, a senior counsellor at South Vancouver Island Assessment and Resource Service in the Cowichan Valley. She estimated that, in the last year, her organization referred at least 20 people with addictions to VLES. "We're going to have to find another treatment centre in Vancouver," she said, adding that it is difficult to find a rehabilitation centre in the Lower Mainland that offers residential care and has openings earlier than September or October. Health authority representatives said the key reason for cancelling funds to VLES is because of a Health Canada report, Best Practices: Substance Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation. "Day treatment programs are shown to be as effective, if not more effective, than residential programs," said Margaret McNeil, the health authority's regional director of mental health services. She said the decision is not based on cost containment. "We have decided to reallocate the funding to provide more services." The health authority estimates that a typical day treatment program costs roughly $45 a day, while residential treatment at VLES costs nearly $150 a day. McNeil said that new day services are being planned for Vancouver Island, allowing the health authority to help more people in the community. But Spray said the findings of the Health Canada report are arguable and the real reason the health authority is cutting VLES is in order to save money. "The bottom line is bucks." "What residential (care) provides that others don't is the experience of being (with other patients and counsellors) 24 hours a day. It provides a retreat-like experience ... it just lets you be more focused and intense," he said. McNeil said there are alternatives for people seeking residential rehabilitation - including public facilities in the Lower Mainland and a private facility in Nanaimo. Spray said each rehabilitation facility is different, and a variety of approaches are needed in the province. "We're losing some diversity for sure." He added that private services will be difficult for many VLES patients to afford. In 2001/02, little more than one quarter of VLES patients paid their own way through the program. The rest were sponsored by social services, addictions services and First Nations programs. Right now, Spray is angling to move VLES out of the Island health authority's jurisdiction and make it a responsibility of the provincial health authority. "What our hope is is that there would be a reversal (of the decision) ..." Spray said. "We're governed by a body that thinks locally. I think we need to be governed by a body that thinks provincially." He said that further evaluation is needed to determine whether VLES will become a private institution. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth