Vote Vancouver on addiction: Recovery Community Centres and Road to Recovery
Vote Vancouver would press the Province for more mental health services, psychiatric beds and recovery programs, build more Recovery Community Centres, support St. Paul's Road to Recovery program with supportive housing, and improve coordination so police are not the only crisis response.
PUBLIC SERVICES · PAGE 24
Addiction and Mental Health Supports: what the Policy Priorities says
Vote Vancouver's page on addiction and mental health opens with the Province. The party would advocate for more provincial support: more mental health services for young people, more counsellors in schools, more psychiatric beds and treatment spaces, and more recovery programs. In the city, the party would support the Road to Recovery program at St. Paul's, which it calls an example of modern addiction treatment. The city's part would be to build more supportive housing for people leaving the program and to continue funding Vancouver Coastal Health. It would also build more Recovery Community Centres, places that connect people with peer support and wellness activities while they wait for detox and treatment. The party says Rebecca Bligh brought a motion to build such a centre.
The last item is about crisis calls. The party would improve coordination between police, health care providers, housing providers and community groups, so that police are less often the only response to a mental health or addiction crisis. Health services, treatment beds and drug policy are run by the Province and the federal government, so much of this page is advocacy. Council can approve supportive housing, decide where it goes and fund city programs. The Vancouver Police Board directs the police department.
4 COMMITMENTS
What the party says it would do
Advocating for more provincial support
Vote Vancouver would advocate for more provincial support, including more mental health services for young people, more counsellors in schools, more psychiatric beds and treatment capacity, and more recovery programs.
- Who has the power
- Province Health services and treatment beds are run by the Province, so the city can only ask for them.
Supporting St. Paul's Road to Recovery program
The party says the city would support the Road to Recovery (R2R) program as an example of modern addiction treatment, by building more supportive housing for people after they leave the program and continuing to fund Vancouver Coastal Health.
- Who has the power
- City, with others Council decides where supportive housing is approved, while the treatment program itself is a provincial health service.
More Recovery Community Centres
Vote Vancouver would build more Recovery Community Centres around the city that connect people with peer support and wellness activities, to bridge the gap between starting recovery and getting into detox and treatment. The party says this continues Rebecca Bligh's motion to build such a centre.
- Who has the power
- City, with others The city can provide space and approvals, but recovery services sit within the provincial health system.
Coordinating police, health and housing responses
The party would improve coordination between police, healthcare providers, housing providers and community organizations, to reduce the number of situations where police are the only available response to mental health and addiction crises.
- Who has the power
- City, with others The Vancouver Police Board directs the police and the Province runs health care, so the city can only bring these bodies together.
WHO WOULD HAVE TO ACT
Where the power sits for this chapter
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Questions about addiction and mental health supports
What would Vote Vancouver do about addiction in Vancouver?
Vote Vancouver would build more Recovery Community Centres, support St. Paul's Road to Recovery program with more supportive housing for people leaving it, and press the Province for more treatment beds and recovery programs (Policy Priorities, page 24).
What is a Recovery Community Centre in Vote Vancouver's plan?
The party describes Recovery Community Centres as places that connect people with peer support and wellness activities, to bridge the gap between starting recovery and getting into detox and treatment. It would build more of them around the city (Policy Priorities, page 24).
Does Vote Vancouver support the Road to Recovery program?
Yes. Vote Vancouver says the city would support St. Paul's Road to Recovery program by building more supportive housing for people after they leave it and continuing to fund Vancouver Coastal Health (Policy Priorities, page 24).
What does Vote Vancouver say about police and mental health calls?
The party would improve coordination between police, health care providers, housing providers and community groups so that police are less often the only response to mental health and addiction crises (Policy Priorities, page 24).
What would Vote Vancouver ask the Province for on mental health?
Vote Vancouver would advocate for more mental health services for young people, more counsellors in schools, more psychiatric beds and treatment capacity, and more recovery programs (Policy Priorities, page 24).
Can Vancouver City Council open treatment beds?
Health services, treatment beds and drug policy are provincial and federal. Vote Vancouver's platform says it would advocate to the Province for more beds, while the city's own part is supportive housing and recovery centres (Policy Priorities, page 24).
ON THE BALLOT
The Vote Vancouver candidates behind this
Sources
Every commitment on this page comes from the party's own material, marked SAYS SO ITSELF. It proves what the party says it would do. Who holds each power is our own addition, from the sources listed after it.
- Vote Vancouver Policy Priorities SAYS SO ITSELFVote Vancouver · pages 24 · checked