Correspondence (e): Letter dated June 12, 2018 from R. Stanwick, Island Health

Office of the Chief Medical Health Officer

#430 - 1900 Richmond Avenue
Victoria, BC V8R 4R2 Canada
Tel: 250-519-3406 | Fax: 250-519-3441
viha.ca

June 12, 2018

Mayor and Council
View Royal Town Hall
45 View Royal Avenue
Victoria, BC V9B 1A6

Dear Mayor Screech and Town Councilors of View Royal:

Re: Therapeutic Recovery Community Program proposed by Our Place

This letter is in addition to the one sent by my colleague, Dr. Murray Fyfe, on May 2, 2018 to Jeff Chow, Senior Planner.

Island Health has had a long standing partnership with Our Place on a wide variety of public health matters. Most recently they have ranged from establishing the first Overdose Prevention Site on Vancouver Island in response to the opioid crisis to partnering on resolving some of the issues associated with the so-called tent city occupying the park adjacent to the downtown Court House in Victoria. As part of the solution to the latter situation, Island Health, in conjunction with BC Housing, we were engaged in and supportive of a variety of housing initiatives. They included the establishment Choices in View Royal, where 50 rooms were made available on a temporary basis to house homeless individuals. The social contract with the community of View Royal was associated with the winding down of the Choices facility by the end of 2017.

Island Health is pleased to acknowledge that, in partnership with BC Housing and the judicial system, a unique opportunity currently exists for Our Place to transform the former Choices site into a Therapeutic Recovery Community Program.

I am of the opinion that this initiative can serve to deliver a long-term recovery program in a safe structured therapeutic environment. The proposed approach has shown successes that 30, 60 and 90 day programs have not. The suggested site will be overseen by a professional staff and certainly is a more cost effective way of dealing with homelessness rather than through incarceration. I have been advised that Our Place intends to provide a comprehensive, holistic approach to providing a therapeutic recovery community program, one that is in keeping with the established literature (https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/therapeutic-communities/what-are-therapeutic-communities).

Island Health has committed funding to the creation a therapeutic opportunity for both indigenous and non-indigenous individuals who may have had difficulty succeeding in shorter term interventions in addressing their addiction and mental health challenges.

I anticipate that through the use of a professional team that embraces the principles of this approach, individuals should gain greater control of their dependency, as well as an insight into the chronic relapsing condition with which they are afflicted.

Consequently, Island Health would ask that you give full consideration to this endeavor that will help some of the most vulnerable citizens of our region on a road where recovery is possible. I think everyone would subscribe to the aspiration of Our Place to have every individual who graduates from this program to be in control of their addiction, to have a place to live, to have a job and to have all the life skills necessary to not only survive in the wider community, but to thrive in it.

Respectfully submitted,

Richard S. Stanwick MD, MSc, FRCPC, FAAP
Chief Medical Health Officer

c.c.:

• Cheryl Damstetter, Executive Director, Island Health
• Jeff Chow, Senior Planner, View Royal
• Kelly Reid, Director, Island Heath
• Richard Crow, Executive Medical Director, Island Health