Pubdate: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 Source: Kelowna Capital News (CN BC) Copyright: 2006, West Partners Publishing Ltd. Contact: http://www.kelownacapnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1294 Author: Jennifer Smith Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) IHA FIRES BACK AT CRITICS The Interior Health Authority have no plans to let the controversial St. Paul's Street transitional housing complex turn into a lawless drug-house, say IHA top brass. Wednesday morning the health authority called a press conference responding to allegations levied at a community meeting held by the St. Paul's Business Committee, which attracted more than 250 residents and business people the night before. "The current site is selected blocks away from known downtown drug areas or better known by the judicial process as the red zone and I don't want the red zone to grow," said business frontman Jim Carta in a speech in which he accused the IHA and city of everything from poor fiscal planning to creating a haven for addicts from across the country. In the weeks leading up to the Tuesday meeting, the IHA has continually been questioned on the impact the project will have on the neighbouring businesses, in particular whether the apartments will draw a crowd of addicts (and dealers) similar to the Gospel Mission. "This initiative is an apartment building," Ira Roness, IHA manager of alcohol and drug services, clarified Wednesday. "It's not the Gospel Mission. We're talking about serving a different population." The facility in question is a 30-unit apartment block where homeless and mentally ill Kelowna residents struggling with addiction can begin reducing or eliminating their abusive habits by making connections with counsellors and community services. Residents will not be required to make the cold-turkey leap to an abstinent lifestyle, but must attend counselling services aimed at improving their health. "We're going to gear services to people who really want to engage in services, who want to see their counsellor, who want to improve their health," said Roness. Although he stopped short of calling information provided the previous evening misleading, Roness said many of the harm reduction-style addiction projects drawn to the public's attention over the last three months have nothing to do with Kelowna's apartments. "We want to make it very clear what we are doing and what we're not doing. Part of the issue is that there has been information presented to the community that talks about certain initiatives that we're not incorporating within this model " Roness said. "This is not a drop-in centre, it's not a place where people will come and access services who are not living there. "Those services are needed but this is not what this is. "We're not encouraging free drug use. We're not encouraging drug use. We're not giving out free alcohol. "These are all things that have been raised by people in our community and the record needs to be set straight that that is not what we're doing." St. Paul's business community stakeholders formed an ad hoc group shortly after the project was announced, led by Carta, whose financial planning firm Peak Investment Services lies blocks from the proposed site, and developers Mel and Dina Kotler who are planning a high-end condominium one block from the St. Paul's location. They are questioning the site selected, whether the project can be controlled and the harm reduction philosophy of allowing the addicts participating to use drugs or alcohol without being evicted. "It has always been my belief that no matter how difficult it is to get off addictions, that the ultimate goal is to become drug free," said Carta, in his opening speech at Tuesday's public meeting. "That was not the principle focus in designing this particular program, so it leads me to believe (and the fact that we have CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.) involved in this project as a silent partner on the federal side that this is very much a housing project--a place where people will come and access services--a project that's aimed at getting people off the street, but not necessarily rehabilitated." Pointing out that 75 per cent of Kelowna's homeless are also mentally ill, Roness, director of mental health services Dr. Don Duncan and senior medical health officer Dr. Paul Hasselback told reporters that providing housing will provide the first step in efforts to curtail addictive behaviour. Their comments were a rebuttal to the Tuesday meeting's featured speaker Dr. Colin Mangham, whose anti-harm reduction speech focused on saving family values and preventing addiction in youth. "Harm reduction has ceased to be a tool and has become a way of thinking," Mangham told the crowd. "We have a false belief that all values are equal and I just would say that the very key to a civilization's survival is transmission of healthy values from generation to generation that support personal responsibility, respect for one's self and others The (harm reduction way of) thinking is pervasive, seductive and I would encourage you to be watchful of it." The Kelowna project is open to those 19 and above, although the predominant age of homeless and addicted clients likely to use the facility is roughly 40 years old. Tuesday evening the St. Paul group called on members of a Christian-based abstinence program to provide testimony as to alternative approaches to dealing with addiction rehabilitation. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom