Provincial minister for mental health and addicitions and Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcolmson confirmed $132 million in provincial funding over three years for substance use and treatment beds across B.C. (BC Government)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

DRUG TOXICITY

New substance abuse treatment & assessment beds coming to Vancouver Island

Oct 13, 2021 | 12:07 PM

NANAIMO — More beds and treatment services are on the way for those dealing with substance use and addictions issues.

Sheila Malcolmson, Nanaimo MLA and minister for mental health and addictions, made the announcement of $132 million in provincial money over three years to open 195 new substance treatment beds for adults across the province.

Included in the funding are residential treatment beds for women in Island Health, although a specific number or their locations weren’t confirmed on Wednesday, Oct. 13.

“The work done up to this point has been extraordinarily important and urgently need but up to now we have been patching holes in that road as we drove over them and now we are starting to build a new road entirely,” Malcolmson said.

The province vowed to create more than 65 new or enhanced substance use treatment and recovery services in B.C., which adds to over 220 adult and youth beds announced by the province in 2020.

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Malcolmson added talks continue with health authorities across B.C. to place the beds where they are needed most.

Earlier in October, the province issued requests for proposals for similar services across Vancouver Island.

It was seeking operators to deliver eight supportive recovery beds in Oceanside along with four new sobering and assessment beds in Nanaimo to compliment four existing spaces.

The request for proposal process will close on Nov. 2, with services expected to be online by the end of March.

The Nanaimo region is second only to Victoria for communities on Vancouver Island hardest hit by the ongoing drug toxicity crisis.

Data from the BC Coroners Service in late September showed 25 people lost their lives in Nanaimo alone through the first seven months of 2021.

Central Vancouver Island, including communities like Nanaimo, Parksville, Qualicum, Port Alberni and Tofino/Ucluelet saw 61 fatalities in the same time period.

Fatalities in the central Island per 100,000 people sit at 34.3, below the provincial average of 39.7. However, the region is currently at its highest drug toxicity death rate in at least the last ten years.

The Coroners Service mentioned Victoria, along side both Vancouver and Surrey as areas with the most deaths due to illicit drug toxicity.

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