Pubdate: Wed, 06 Feb 2008 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Frances Bula Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) SURREY WANTS A SOBERING CENTRE Facility Would Be Unique In Lower Mainland SURREY - The city is pushing hard to get money for a unique new "sobering centre" near Surrey Memorial Hospital for its drug users and alcoholics. Like Vancouver, Surrey's police and hospitals are facing a rising tide of people who are addicted, alcoholic and mentally ill, which is absorbing a huge proportion of their resources. In one more attempt to cope with that phenomenon, Surrey has decided to create a centre dedicated to that group. Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts confirmed the city has recently acquired land for the centre near the hospital at 96th Avenue and King George Highway, which is also close to the city's two other detox facilities. Watts's council identified a sobering centre two years ago as part of its new crime-reduction strategy. The centre, which would be unlike any other facility in the Lower Mainland, would give police and ambulance crews a place to take people high on drugs or alcohol. It would also incorporate treatment beds, an addictions-treatment team that will also deal with people's mental-health problems, and transitional housing in the building. Watts said that will help cope with the same problem Vancouver police identified in a report this week, that they are spending 30 to 50 per cent of their time dealing with people who are mentally ill. "The sobering centre becomes the entry point into the system" for those kinds of people, said Watts. That way, police don't have to wait around in emergency wards with people they've picked up who clearly have multiple problems. Instead, the centre's staff can deal with both the addictions and the mental-health problems in a setting away from the regular hospital. The main impetus for the centre is coming from overwhelmed police and emergency-room staff. "Right now, police are picking these people up and they're ending up in cells [or the emergency ward]," said Watts. Surrey Memorial gets about about 30,000 visits a year from people with drug and alcohol problems, some of them also mentally ill, looking for a place to "come down" from whatever substance they were using. Coun. Judy Villeneuve said the centre will give people a place to go without referrals, which are required by the two existing detox facilities. It would also take pressure off the emergency ward. "It's a bit of a safe haven for people," said Villeneuve. "The problem with the emergency ward now is that it has no place to release people to. The beauty of this centre is that services [between the hospital, detox facilities, and sobering centre] can be linked." Housing Minister Rich Coleman said his ministry is fully behind the concept. "They're trying to be very innovative and we're there for them." With BC Housing willing to put up the capital for the building, Surrey now needs money from the Fraser Health Authority to operate the services. Meryl McDowell, the head of Fraser's mental health and addictions services, said the authority will be looking for the money in the provincial budget Feb. 19. The authority, working with three government ministries, has put in a proposal under the province's crime-reduction secretariat for operating money for the centre. The only similar centre in the province is in Victoria. Vancouver's drug policy coordinator, Donald MacPherson, said all Vancouver has is a basic facility next to Vancouver Detox, which has little more than mats on the floor. The concept is "a good idea," he said. It's been a long time coming. A regional homelessness report from 2001 urged that a sobering centre be built to serve the south-of-Fraser suburbs. Villeneuve said the enthusiasm for the sobering centre is one more sign of the new approach Surrey has been taking to social problems recently. After years of resisting social services for fear that they would attract more social problems, Surrey "has moved in a really positive new direction," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom