Island Health will begin allowing older teens under the influence of drugs and alcohol to stay overnight at its adult-only sobering centre in Victoria this month.
The Sobering and Assessment Centre on Pembroke Street previously denied entry to anyone under 19, but will begin admitting 17- and 18-year-olds for stays of less than one day as of Feb. 15.
The health authority says its adult-only policy was too restrictive, and prevented the 20-bed centre from offering shelter to intoxicated teens with no place else to go.
“Clearly, they would be at risk, often just wandering the streets,” said Kelly Reid, director of adult mental health and substance use services on the South Island.
“If we have a place like the Sobering and Assessment Centre, and we have staff that are trained and we have a space within that centre where we know that that individual can be safe, then I feel like we’re really obligated to do our best to help care for that individual — at least for the 23 hours that we hold and support people.”
The move, however, is raising concerns about the potential risks associated with housing intoxicated adults and youth in the same facility.
“This really highlights the need for additional supports for folks — particularly youth — who are in need of shelter and addiction-recovery services,” said Stephanie Smith, president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, which represents workers at the site.
“I think there are some concerns both for the safety of the youth and the safety of our staff, and we’ll be monitoring closely.”
Smith said there have been a couple of “pretty traumatic” incidents at the facility recently, though she declined to provide further details.
She said the union’s occupational health and safety team has visited the site and is working with the employer to deal with safety issues.
Still, she said that while her members have concerns, they also recognize that older youth have few other options.
“What is the alternative for these youth who are seeking addiction-recovery services? They’re on the streets, which is as dangerous, if not more so,” Smith said.
Island Health believes it can keep the youth safe by placing them in four private rooms at the sobering centre rather than in a communal space.
“If youth were to come, we would only be putting them in those single, secure spaces,” Reid said. “At this stage, we feel that with our staffing complement, putting youth into the communal area would represent too high of a risk.”
Reid said there are three staff on duty at all times — including a nurse for part of the day.
He acknowledged that there have been incidents at the centre in the past where individuals exhibited aggressive and sometimes violent behaviour.
“It doesn’t happen all the time, but we have had a couple of incidences in the last few months,” he said. “So I don’t want to suggest that it doesn’t ever happen.”
He said staff responded appropriately in each case to the recent incidents.
“We believe we are able to provide safe care in the Sobering and Assessment Centre,” he said. “We’re trained, equipped [and] we’ve got the space to keep our patients safe.
“Having said that, we also know that we can’t be eyes on everyone at all times. If there is a youth who we think is vulnerable, and there’s an alternative location, we’ll certainly utilize that.
“But sending them back out onto the street, to just be outside while they’re intoxicated, that, in most cases, is going to be the highest risk situation for them.”
