We need healing communities, not homeless encampments
Richard Young
Writer
What’s up with Alberta? That province seems to have it going on with its recovery and treatment model. Government doesn’t just want to build addiction treatment centres, it wants to build recovery communities — long-term, live-in addiction treatment facilities for Albertans.
These recovery communities are an important part of the Alberta Recovery Model and I think they are an excellent idea.
Alberta’s Recovery Model will see more than a billion dollars in funding go towards establishing a new health agency and building addiction and mental health treatment communities — the largest long-term treatment endeavour in the history of Canada.
The province has two treatment and recovery communities finished, with six more breaking ground out of a total of 11 being planned.
So what is a treatment and recovery community? It is holistic addiction recovery that focuses on the whole person, a client-centred support service and barrier-free, with no fees. Alberta knows that recovery is a journey, so clients can stay up to one year at no cost. It adopts a transformational approach for personal long-term recovery. The province has a service delivery structure that is not one single entity. It starts with shelter, and each client receives an individualized care plan and is assigned a peer mentor who is in the later stages of recovery.
Over the year, clients can access a range of services, including opioid agonist treatment medications, counselling, employment training, and financial and housing supports.
Recovery communities, also known as therapeutic communities, are used in more than 65 countries around the world. This is the first of its kind to break ground in Alberta.
Recovery communities are a form of long-term residential treatment that focuses on people who are pursing a life free of addiction. Recovery is seen as a gradual, ongoing process of cognitive change through clinical and peer interventions aimed at improving a person’s overall well-being through a holistic approach.
I am thinking B.C. could adopt this approach as well. Why not?
We need recovery communities, not homeless encampments. We need one-stop addiction services and bed-based shelters with detox, treatment and mental health help — all rolled into a one-stop recovery community.
We need to get serious about our solutions for the opioid crisis, our unhoused population and those who struggle with drug use. I believe recovery communities are the way to go. Our current treatment facilities are completely overwhelmed. We simply do not have enough of them, which has been an ongoing fact for too long.
What about land use issues? Alberta isn’t surrounded by coastal mountains or an ocean like B.C is, but it still has to deal with the government gatekeepers and building blockers wanting to sell to developers for big profits — which are the same challenges Vancouver has been struggling with.
Part of Alberta’s solution to these challenges is that the province is working in partnership with First Nations to build four recovery communities on Indigenous-owned land. There will be one each located on the Enoch Cree Nation, Tsuut’ina Nation, Siksika Nation and Blood Tribe as a part of an on going effort to remove barriers to land-based, culturally safe services for Indigenous Peoples in Alberta.
This is a good model for B.C. to follow as well. The city won’t like this idea, but I think CRAB Park, with its current encampment issues, would be a perfect place to build one of these recovery communities. There is enough land there and it’s in the heart of the Downtown Eastside, where it’s needed most.
I agree with Alberta. It’s time to stop talking about a better future and start building one.
Richard Young
Writer
Richard Young was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and came to Vancouver in 1970. Richard has been a part of Megaphone for seven years, first as a vendor. He is now a member of The Shift peer newsroom as well. He volunteers at Agape Church in Burnaby and is also a “Chinatown ambassador” as part of the Chinatown Community Stewardship Program, fostering a more harmonious community in and around Chinatown. He's a sucker for his Grandma's famous apple pie.
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