Pubdate: Thu, 14 May 2015
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Daphne Bramham
Page: 6

TOO MUCH TALK, NOT ENOUGH ACTION

The Crossing: Two Months After Keremeos Addiction Treatment Facility 
for Youth Closes, There's Still No Replacement

Everyone agrees that there's an urgent need for more youth addiction 
treatment in B.C., and more kinds of treatment.

Yet once again, British Columbia is the only province other than 
Newfoundland that has no long-term residential treatment for kids 
with addictions.

For six years, B.C. had a facility. But at the end of February, the 
Provincial Health Services Authority shut British Columbia's only 
long-term residential treatment centre.

After months of negotiations, it couldn't reach agreement with 
Portage, a Quebec-based nonprofit that had operated The Crossing at 
Keremeos for six years.

PHSA "transitioned" 22 youth - boys and girls - from The Crossing 
into other treatment programs near their home communities.

With no operator, PHSA handed back the keys to the property owner, 
Central City Foundation.

Now, more than two months later, The Crossing sits empty and British 
Columbia has 42 fewer spaces for youth treatment.

Yet even before the closure, everyone agreed there was a shortage of 
treatment for B.C. kids and an urgent and pressing need here for more.

The Crossing opened in 2009 after Central City raised $6.5 million to 
buy the 58-acre site. Central City then provided the property and 
buildings rent-free to the government to run as a therapeutic 
community for kids aged 13 to 18.

Over the past six years, more than 400 kids have gone through The 
Crossing for help; close to 45 per cent completed the program; and, 
six to 18 months later, 88 per cent of them were still clean and sober.

Now, Central City and the province seem to be at an impasse.

"We're trying hard to get it reopened," says Central City's president 
and CEO Jennifer Johnstone. "I'm not looking for an operator, but we 
are keeping the site ready to go and we're trying to have a 
conversation with the government to come back with the operating 
funds. ... What this needs is for the government to come back to the 
table because I feel strongly that we have kept up our side of the bargain."

Meantime, over at PHSA, "We certainly understand that there is an 
urgent need," says Connie Coniglio, executive director of children's 
and women's mental health and substance use programs. "It will not 
take years to sort out. We hope to move forward quickly after 
discussing this with stakeholders and families.

This is a top priority for us."

PHSA, however, doesn't seem to include Central City as a "stakeholder."

"They (Central City) own the property. I imagine that they will look 
at appropriate options for how to use it. There are appropriate 
options," Coniglio said. "It was used by Outward Bound before."

She said PHSA is working on "an enhanced model of care" that would 
have more clinical staff, enhanced psychiatric support and more 
nurses than the peer-based model used by Portage.

(Coniglio insisted that there was "no defining event" that caused the 
break with Portage and that "everyone worked hard and in good faith" 
to try to reach a new agreement. However, she wouldn't say why it 
wasn't possible to get a new contract to replace the old one that was 
worth $2.5 million a year.)

Moving forward, Coniglio said, "Our highest priority is high-quality 
care using the most effective, evidence-based models."

But Johnstone believes the evidence from The Crossing's six years of 
operation is clear. That model works.

It's not a model that works for everybody. But even addictions 
specialists who use other methods agree that there is no single model 
that does. Since The Crossing has closed, Johnstone says not only 
have donors and former residents been calling, she and her staff are 
fielding calls from desperate parents all across the province looking 
for help for their children.

"Any loss of services in the youth sector is difficult. Any loss is 
impactful," says James Kelly, the executive director of Peak House in 
Vancouver, which runs a 10-week residential treatment program for 
girls and boys aged 13 to 18.

There's not a single youth facility in B.C. that isn't full all the 
time and it's rare that they don't have waiting lists as well.

It's not hyperbole to say that children are dying because they can't 
get the treatment they need when they need it.

So, could somebody - other than desperate parents and kids - pick up 
the phone? We need to have all this talk of urgency turned into action.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom