Pubdate: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 Source: Penticton Western (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 Penticton Western Contact: http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1310 Author: Brian Jonson Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) MONEY TO BE USED FOR DRUG TREATMENT BEDS AND COUNSELLING EFFORTS Money allocated to fight youth addictions in B.C. will see new treatment beds and more youth addiction workers coming to the South Okanagan. The province last week announced that it gave the Interior Health Authority $1.2 million to fight drug problems, including $362,000 to deal with crystal meth addictions and $899,000 to battle youth addictions. That money will pay for two short-term residential beds, urban and rural counselling programs, a new prevention co-ordinator in the South Okanagan and a dependency nurse-clinician to work specifically with crystal meth addicts throughout the Okanagan, said Ira Roness, senior manager for alcohol and drug services for the Okanagan for IHA. Work has already begun on bringing the new resources online, said Roness. Interior Health issued a request for proposals from social service agencies in the South Okanagan for the two residential beds six weeks ago, said Roness. The beds will give young people a place to go to deal with any issues related to their addictions, he said. "We've asked them to come to us with some ideas they might have in terms of locations and what those beds will look like," said Roness. "We just wanted to leave it as open as possible because we recognize that social service agencies might have some different ideas that we might not have known about." The deadline for proposals was last week and while he couldn't comment on the number of proposals received or when an announcement could be expected, Roness said there had been a "fairly good response." The rural outreach counsellor is expected to spend time in communities such as Princeton, Keremeos and Oliver, which do not have full-time dedicated youth counselling services, said Roness. In Penticton, a new urban outreach counsellor will work together with existing services, such as those provided by Pathways Addiction Resource Centre, to work with youth on the street struggling with dependencies or addictions to street youth, he said. The crystal meth dependency nurse clinician will not only provide assessment and treatment services for crystal meth users, but also support other youth drug addiction workers who work with people with amphetamine addictions, said Roness. Funding to tackle drug addictions, especially crystal meth, is always welcome, but it shouldn't overshadow other addictions, said Danny Highly, substance abuse prevention co-ordinator. "From a prevention perspective, the consensus in the field is that yes, crystal meth is a drug we need to be looking at," he said. "But at the same time, we also still need to be really concerned with tobacco and alcohol." The Ministry of Community and Family Development will also hire a concurrent disorder clinician for the South Okanagan, who will work with youth that are dealing with both mental illness and addictions. The funding is part of the $8 million the provincial government put into treatment options and youth addiction services across the province, which included $6 million for youth addictions treatment and $2 million for crystal meth treatment programs. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin