4744 replies to this topic

[Vin]

IMG_4486.jpeg

It looks like New Westminster is doing something similar, albeit with a semi-seethru fence.

 

https://globalnews.c...westminster-b-c

[Victoria Watcher]

Brianna MacDonald died last month in an Abbotsford, B.C., homeless camp. She was just 13 years old.

 

Her death was caused by a suspected overdose, according to her family. And her grieving parents are urging change so other families don’t have to face what they are going though.

 

Brianna’s mom said despite the family’s ongoing attempts to get her help for her addictions and mental health issues, their pleas were ignored in a system they said failed Brianna at every turn.

“She was robbed of so much, way too young,” said Brianna’s tearful mother, Sarah MacDonald.

 

Brianna’s story is tragic and complex. Her mom said her daughter started smoking pot at just 10-and-a-half years old.

 

“I got very upset with her. We had many talks about why it was dangerous and how she was way too young,” recalled Sarah MacDonald.

 

By age 12, Brianna was using a drug known as “molly.” And family said the more they tried to get her to stop, the more it seemed she wanted to use.

 

“I think a lot of the reasons she was doing the drugs was the mental health problems she was having, and she was trying to drown them with drugs,” MacDonald said.

 

Family said that despite Brianna’s age, she had accessed Fraser Health-supplied drug paraphernalia including needles, naloxone kits and pamphlets on how to use safely.

 

But her family said what they instead wanted from Fraser Health was to get their daughter treatment.

 

“(Children) are not able to buy alcohol, they are not able to buy marijuana at the marijuana store, they can’t buy cigarettes, but they can have access to crack pipes and kits to be able to do safe injection? It’s just wrong,” said her step-father Lance Charles.

 

 

 

https://bc.ctvnews.c...-camp-1.7033221

 

 

Brianna’s mom said that in February, her daughter was hospitalized for a suspected overdose and ended up first at BC Children’s Hospital and then was transferred to a child psychiatric ward at Surrey Memorial.

 

“I begged them not to let her leave. I mean, I begged them and so did her dad. And we tried really hard. We said she’s not mentally capable. She was sticking pencils through her hand when she was in the psych ward there,” her mom said.

 

The family wanted her held involuntarily so she could get the help they said she desperately needed.

 

But the family said they were told Brianna had the right to decide herself, despite her only being 12 years old at the time.

 

“The parents have to be able to mandate that the kids stay there,” said her dad, Jesse Griffith.

 

“She’s 12. She’s my legal responsibility so how come I don’t have the right to say she needs to stay here?” her mom added.

 

They said despite their objections, Brianna was discharged.

 

 

___________________

 

 

Fraser Health also said that, “as with any medical intervention, decisions about how best to treat a young person who is struggling with substance use or mental health challenges are made by health care providers, guided by B.C.’s mature minor consent rules under the Infants Act.

 

Fraser Health also said that their records indicate only Narcan was provided to the family, but Brianna’s parents said their daughter had other drug paraphernalia from the health authority.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's where we are today.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 12 September 2024 - 02:30 AM.

[lanforod]

So sad and wrong on so many levels.

[Victoria Watcher]

A 12 or 13 year old on drugs simply can’t be allowed to make her own “medical decisions” in these circumstances. We need to do this differently.

[Nparker]

A 12 or 13 year old, even without mental health issues, doesn't have the capacity to make these sort of decisions for themself. That the state allows this is reprehensible.

[Barrister]

Perhaps time to jail some politicians for criminal negligence. 

[dasmo]

"mature minor consent rules under the Infants Act."... Was written in the 90s. No one knew or cared. Now that it is being abused, someone being harmed, like them, needs to sue so it goes to the Supreme Court. Like weed legislation did.  A "health care professional." has no boundaries since the act says they just need to feel the child understands, there are no parameters, not even age. In the 90's no one would imagine the risk was someone deciding your child needs a sex change becasue their favourite colour is pink.... 

"They would never do that!" 

[Mike K.]

Our society was too trusting of officialdom, since WWII.

Growing up in a household of people who fled communism, it was the opposite, often. It was ingrained in how we viewed the bureaucracy, but also how grateful we were for systems that ran well, and ran efficiently. Canada was a world leader in how to run a society.

MMHI is about housing affordability, and gentle density. On Day 1. By day 5,000, what will it be? By day 10,000? Look at the Charter of Rights, on Day 1, compared to day 20,000.

We call these outcomes unintended consequences. But they were always intended. If you want to see where the world is headed, read the dissertations and theses and books of the people who are in charge of our societies, running the WEFs, the Trilateral Commissions and whatever. They explain exactly where things of going, and how we’ll get there. That’s why so many movies end up foretelling the future. Script writers are reading the books of the policy makers and extrapolating the eventualities into their films. They make for great entertainment, because they feel so …possible, like a rollercoaster ride that is intrinsically dangerous but you have a feeling of security. We love movies that we feel are crazy and implausible, but deep down, we can see how the scenario is possible.

[dasmo]

I read the Great Reset. They were expecting us to all wear masks every fall and still be elbow bumping. They have plans, but plans fail.... 

One should also read the essay by Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless. A great work describing how it was for the Czechs and how it is for us now. 

[Mike K.]

That's way, way too near-term.

 

Where it eventually starts to align is when you compare the promoted spirit of the Charter in the 1980s, to today. The brightest minds don't plan for now and a little bit from now, they create the fundamentals for changes that will live on after them. Your example on the Charter is bang on, in that regard. Speaking of Europe (Havel), the European Union is another exciting rabbit hole to ponder over.

[dasmo]

As Klaus said in the great reset, they expect things to move faster now because of “Velocity.”

But ya, they work at generational scale. We work at a monthly schedule.

Still, read that essay. We are in a constant rhythm of this. The essay reads like now. The Velvet Revolution. Super interesting to read about a recen empire falling.

[LJ]

Hopefully the great reset backwards is going to occur within the next year or so.

[Mike K.]

The community meeting between the city and neighbours over Dowler Place has been rescheduled for 7PM on September 24th at the Ambrosia Banquet centre, 638 Fisgard.

[Beacon]

The community meeting between the city and neighbours over Dowler Place has been rescheduled for 7PM on September 24th at the Ambrosia Banquet centre, 638 Fisgard.

 

They lost a chance at calculated chaos in your face irony here, it should have been scheduled for one of the non profit community centers they wanted a homeless encampment set up at in exchange to not have to pay increased taxes.

[Victoria Watcher]

Those seeking harm-reduction supplies from Island hospitals can still get them, Island Health says, even though recently installed vending machines have been removed from three facilities pending a provincial review.

 

Machines installed last fall outside hospital ERs were removed from Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and North Island Hospital in Campbell River on Sept. 4, while one was removed from Victoria General Hospital in mid-December due to the constrained space and inappropriate use of nearby fire alarms and has not been relocated.

 

The vending machines were intended to reach those who wouldn’t or couldn’t seek in-person services because of their work hours, stigma or fear of repercussions from their employers.

 

They were also intended to reduce pressure on hospital emergency rooms.

 

During the review period, those who use drugs and are seeking safe, clean supplies can go to the emergency departments of the three hospitals, where an ambassador or receptionist will direct them to a queue separate from those awaiting emergency treatment.

 

Staff will give the client the supplies and offer information and treatment options, including opioid agonist therapy — medications such as Suboxone and methadone, the health authority said.

 

Since the pilot program began last fall, a total of 18,253 items have been dispensed from all three vending machines, which continue to be leased at $2,000 a month each, Island Health said. As of Aug. 28, 8,580 items had been dispensed from the Nanaimo vending machine alone.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...-health-9541364

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 19 September 2024 - 09:25 AM.

[Nparker]

The Hippocratic oath (or at very least a healthy conscience) should prevent any medical professional from dispensing so-called "safe-supply" substances and associated paraphernalia.

[Victoria Watcher]

There are just a few hundred brain-injured people in the province with such severe mental illness and addiction that they require involuntary care, says a psychiatrist who is advising the province on the toxic drug and mental-health crisis.

 

Dr. Daniel Vigo said only about 2,500 people in the province have a combination of mental illness, substance use and overdose-related brain injury, and an even smaller number “remain extremely intractably disturbed” despite interventions, including hospital stays under the Mental Health Act.

 

Vigo, who is regional lead psychiatrist for Assertive Community Treatment teams and a professor at the University of B.C., was appointed in June by Premier David Eby as his chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders, tasked with leading a team to chart a course for more involuntary and voluntary services.

 

Eby told the Union of B.C. Municipalities this past week his two goals are to provide care and support to those visibly struggling, “whether they’re just lying face down on a sidewalk or whether they’re yelling and screaming and causing fear and confusion and concern in the community,” while ensuring residents feel safe in their communities.

 

Last weekend, the province announced about 400 psychiatric beds at new and expanded hospitals are coming on line throughout the province, providing a mix of voluntary and involuntary care.

 

The first secure housing and care facility for those with concurrent mental-health and addictions issues will open “in the coming months” on the grounds of Alouette Correctional Centre in Maple Ridge because it was the easiest facility to customize and open quickly.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...iatrist-9556385

 

 

Here is something that I just thought about.  In the old days, if you were drunk, so you could not walk properly, or stand up, you'd be taken to "the drunk tank" to sober up.  Why is it that now we have peaple sprawled out, passed out on sidewalks, or hunched over in the drug posture and we just leave them alone?

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 September 2024 - 04:43 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

https://x.com/Vancit...477891431059528

 

[Barrister]

But harm reduction employees hundreds of the woke in every city. The point is to provide jobs for friends of the party and funnel money to your political supporters. 

 

Putting them in institutions would involve hiring actual nurses and doctors. 

[dasmo]

The problem will be the wording of the law. It won’t set parameters where the above, no hope person, is the threshold. It will be like the INFANTS ACT. It will be whatever they think is appropriate. Then it can be abused.

They create the problem, reaction, and the solution.