Pubdate: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2000 The Province Contact: 200 Granville Street, Ste. #1, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N3 Canada Fax: (604) 605-2323 Website: http://www.vancouverprovince.com/ Author: Kathy Tait 'KIDS SERVED AT ADULTS' EXPENSE' In its attempt to solve a growing youth drug addiction crisis, the B.C. government is cannibalizing adult addiction services, critics charge. At Vancouver's Robson Street outpatient addiction clinic, for example, staff closed the waiting list earlier this month - refusing to even put new clients on their list. The waitlist was already three months long - double the normal wait. Other Vancouver outpatient clinics are experiencing similar backups in services to adults. Critics who work in the ministry and can't speak publicly say the backlog was created by a Ministry for Children and Families decision to move one adult counsellor from each Vancouver clinic into youth counselling. Sohan Singh, manager of the Robson Street team, insisted that the wait-list was closed only briefly to allow the supervisor to contact everyone on it to determine if he or she was still waiting for one-to-one counselling. It is now open, he said. But critics say: * There is a serious backlog in adult outpatient counselling - although what youths need desperately is residential drug treatment. * Some 2,500 more residential treatment beds are needed to meet the needs of addicted teens. * The ministry is taking one-third of Vancouver's adult-addictions counsellors and making them youth specialist - jobs they are not trained or qualified for. * While the ministry is focussing on youth addiction and has put money into it, it is not clear how much is new money and how much is just shuffling of service. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk