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New opioid clinic might lead to boost in West Shore mental-health services

A new clinic in Langford for opioid users might be the first step in expanding addiction and mental-health services in the West Shore, say health professionals. The Westshore AIDS Vancouver Island Health Centre, which opened in Langford on Oct.
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Dr. Randal Mason at the new clinic on Jacklin Road in Langford. It is open only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but Mason hopes operating hours will be expanded.

A new clinic in Langford for opioid users might be the first step in expanding addiction and mental-health services in the West Shore, say health professionals.

The Westshore AIDS Vancouver Island Health Centre, which opened in Langford on Oct. 10, allows people struggling with addiction to access help closer to home, rather than making the trip to downtown Victoria, where the majority of outreach services are concentrated.

“It’s pretty well known that there are not a lot of services in the Western Communities — medical services in general, but in particular for opioid issues,” said Dr. Randal Mason, the clinic’s medical director. That creates a barrier for people who want to treat their addiction through substitution therapies such as methadone or Suboxone, he said.

AIDS Vancouver Island found that 40 per cent of people using its downtown clinic for opioid replacement therapy were travelling from the West Shore. The non-profit’s board of directors committed $60,000 from its reserve fund to open the Langford clinic.

The clinic, located in a plaza on Jacklin Road, is already serving about 40 patients. It is open only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but Mason hopes operating hours will be expanded.

Mason said there’s a persistent stereotype of opioid users as street-entrenched people who use drugs in dark alleyways.

Many of the clinic’s patients have housing, he said.

“Some are employed with families and living in suburban communities just like this,” he said. “And there are not enough services for those people, who actually tend to be the majority of people who are struggling.”

AIDS Vancouver Island is asking Island Health for funding to add a social worker and part-time nurse to the clinic.

“We feel we need to provide that wrap-around care to support people to stay in treatment,” said Katrina Jensen, the group’s executive director.

Data from the organization’s clinic in Nanaimo suggest that patients are much more likely to stick with their treatment plan if they are supported by a doctor, nurse and social worker, Jensen said.

Many clients do not have a family doctor, so come to rely on the clinic for a host of health services, she said.

“People have been so grateful that this service exists in their community. That includes people who have never ever sought help for their addiction,” Jensen said. “It’s making it easier for them.”

Langford Mayor Stew Young said his community doesn’t have enough general practitioners, let alone specialized doctors.

“Medical services are a bit lacking in the West Shore and Sooke, for sure,” he said, adding that youth outreach and education services are also needed to prevent people from becoming addicted to drugs.

In Sooke, Mayor Maja Tait has been pushing for a new primary health-care facility. She said that while the new clinic in Langford is closer than the one in Victoria, “it would be great to have that kind of service in Sooke, so there’s no need to commute at all.”

Marko Peljhan, of Island Health, said the health authority recognizes that Langford and Colwood are “priority communities” in the growing West Shore.

“Along with physicians, we are working with community partners and service providers to identify needs so that we can effectively support growth into the future,” Peljhan said.

Mitzi Dean, MLA for Esquimalt-Metchosin and former executive director of the Pacific Centre Family Services Association, said people across B.C. are struggling with “long wait times for services or barriers to assessing services because they’re not in people’s communities.”

She said the new Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions is listening to communities and looking for partnerships to improve access to health services.

“In all of our communities, as we’re able to increase access to service, that will be through partnerships,” she said.

kderosa@timescolonist.com

• Westshore AVI Health Centre is hosting an open house 3-6 p.m. on Dec. 12 at 111-2787 Jacklin Rd.