900 Helmcken Update: A doctor's take on what's really going wrong

Dear Neighbours, 

Dr. Julian Somers, an SFU professor and clinical psychologist, sat down with Global News last weekend, and what he said has stayed with us.

His argument is a simple one. 

The people who use consumption sites are almost always dealing with far more than addiction. They're often without stable housing, out of work, and living with untreated mental illness at the same time. 

Dr. Somers says when we actually help people with those issues, the need for a consumption site tends to fall away on its own. 

But that hasn't been BC's approach. Over the past decade we've gone from one site to 58 while the deeper problems have gone unaddressed, and overdose deaths have kept climbing.

He pointed to Portugal, often held up as the country that turned its overdose crisis around. It got there through therapeutic communities, dispersed housing, and helping people get back to work, without opening a single consumption site. 

Employment, Dr. Somers explained, is one of the strongest predictors of whether someone recovers, yet a decade into this crisis the government still has no real plan to help people back into work. It's another concrete example of how badly BC is failing the very people it claims to help. It's a segment worth a watch. 

This is exactly what we'll be talking about on September 16th at our Residents Forum. We'd love to see you there. RSVP here.

More soon,

Neighbours of 900 Helmcken

inplainsightbc.com/900-helmcken