Vancouver Island politicians calling for support for hard-to-house people are “thrilled” by the province’s new complex-care model — unveiled this past week — and anticipating Island Health will soon receive its share.
As co-chair of the B.C. Urban Mayors’ Caucus, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps has been pushing the province to create complex-care housing for those with the most challenging needs.
She said she’s “thrilled” with the new model, part of the province’s homelessness strategy. It aims to address the needs of people with overlapping mental-health challenges, substance-use issues, trauma and acquired brain injuries.
The first four housing sites will be in Surrey, Abbotsford and Vancouver, and will provide integrated health and social supports that serve people where they live.
While the announcement did not included any sites on the Island, Helps said she recognizes the province had to start somewhere.
“We’re going to continue to advocate, particularly with the provincial budget next month, to ensure that there are more sites, hopefully in Victoria, hopefully in Kelowna, hopefully up north,” she said.
The first four sites will include a total of 98 beds at a cost of $4.8 million, funded out of contingencies. The funding provides wrap-around supports in the form of social workers, nurses, and other health and mental health workers.
It is not necessarily around-the-clock care — the supports were compared to home care or an occupational therapist who comes in and identifies a client’s needs. Additional supports could include helping a client learn to cook nutritious food, counselling, or formulating a health care plan.
Sheila Malcolmson, B.C.’s minister for mental health and addictions, said Thursday the four sites represent a “first step” in building a network of care. February’s provincial budget will contain support for remaining health authorities, she said.
There are already more than 3,500 people in the province in supportive housing with on-site supports but “there are also people who need a higher level of care that goes beyond what was provided in supportive housing,” said Malcolmson.
The province estimates there are about 2,000 people who need complex care.
Malcolmson said people receiving care will be a combination of those identified as homeless and in need of immediate care and those in supportive housing and “not thriving.”
“These are often the people that tend to get evicted from supportive housing because of untreated mental health aggression, substance use, often with acquired brain injury,” she said.
The central tenet of complex-care housing plan, said Malcomson, is that the client’s housing is permanent for them.
“They will not be evicted because of vulnerabilities and their complex needs,” she said.
The new complex care model will be administered by health authorities.
David Eby, attorney general and minister responsible for housing, said the current system is “not working for those with serious mental-health and addiction issues who cycle in and out of shelters, jail and emergency rooms.”
“Pairing intensive health-care supports with housing to support people who are currently living in distress on our streets will improve not just the quality of life of everyone housed through this program, it will improve quality of life of the entire community,” he said.
Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog said he would have loved to see beds announced in Nanaimo, but he’s pleased the province is stepping up and acknowledging the need for complex-care housing. He looks forward to Nanaimo and the Island receiving its share.
“One would hope that given that all of these beds are in the mainland, that the next round of announcements will include Vancouver Island,” he said.
ceharnett@timescolonist.com
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