3844 replies to this topic

[Nparker]

Sonia Furstenau (Green Party MLA for Cowichan) via Twitter: Today is the National Day of Action on the Overdose Crisis. May 2020 was the highest monthly total of overdose deaths, and last Friday paramedics responded to 131 overdose calls - the most recorded in a single day. We need better supports

Maybe addicts shouldn't have been given an additional $300/month for 3 months. Why will no one acknowledge that this was a TERRIBLE idea for many of the recipients?

[Victoria Watcher]

not just the extra $300. many are ALSO receiving CERB.

[Mike K.]

The authorities are always blameless. More supports, more programs, more action, they say, is needed. Always more. Never less. Never a call to pause and reassess. Always more. Never enough. More hotel rooms, more low-barrier housing, more shelter spaces, more programs, more compassion, more understanding, more acceptance.

 

The "civil society" industry in Victoria is a $4 billion operation, and that's in 2016 dollars. Where are we now? $4.5 billion? $5 billion? That's more economic weight than tourism, tech and a half-dozen of the runner-ups combined.

[Victoria Watcher]

we are #1 in supports. and also #1 in homeless - in the entire country. see the relation?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 July 2020 - 07:46 AM.

[aastra]

 

The authorities are always blameless.

 

And they're always utterly naive about organized crime and the pressures that ultimately drive these matters. Heck, how many times have we heard somebody offer a twisted defense of organized crime and drug dealing? "They don't want dead customers, they'd go out of business." Right, and military contractors don't want to kill people, either. Kill too many people and you wouldn't have war anymore. Wouldn't be good for business. They're always cognizant of that. Give me a break with this idiocy.

[Nparker]

...The "civil society" industry in Victoria is a $4 billion operation, and that's in 2016 dollars. Where are we now? $4.5 billion? $5 billion? That's more economic weight than tourism, tech and a half-dozen of the runner-ups combined.

You can understand then why the people in the industry don't want anyone to undertake an unbiased review of their results.

[aastra]

 

The "civil society" industry in Victoria is now a $4 billion operation, and that's in 2016 dollars. Where are we now? $4.5 billion? $5 billion? That's more economic weight than tourism, tech and a half-dozen of the runner-ups combined.

 

But didn't they say they wanted it to be the biggest "industry"? Who said that not too long ago? Somebody did.

[Victoria Watcher]

The death of a newly admitted inmate at Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre has devastated his family and friends, and left them searching for answers.

David Gordon Ivany, 26, died alone from an apparent illicit-drug overdose in his jail cell on June 21.

_____________


B.C. Corrections said it maintains zero-tolerance for illegal drugs within correctional centres and has stringent security measures to deal with contraband, including drugs. It has invested nearly $1.9 million in body scanners to enhance drug interdiction.

https://www.timescol...wers-1.24165163


the family is concerned he was not monitored and the corrections people say they have zero tolerance.

what’s the best course here? safe injection areas in prison? that’s the course of action here on “the outside”.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 July 2020 - 01:53 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Sam started self-medicating with street drugs to soothe the demons in his head, said Stuart, 77. Before long, his drug addiction led to hospital admissions, involvement in the criminal justice system and homelessness.

 

“Sam would have been better off in an institution,” said Stuart. “Mental illness is such a scary thing for all of us and we aren’t doing the right things in trying to help those affected. We’ve left them on the street and we’ve let them become drug addicted.”

Sam was sick from an early age, said Stuart, who describes her son as very, very difficult.

The teachers at Montessori preschool always said: “Sam won’t listen. Sam pushes people.”

St. Michaels University School asked him to leave.

“It was awful,” said Stuart. “We were at the principal’s office every single week to discuss what was happening with Sam. He was bright and capable, in the 98th percentile. But he couldn’t concentrate. He couldn’t sit still. He either had fits of laughter or was in absolute terror. I couldn’t even go the store with him because I didn’t know how he would act.”

Sam managed to complete Grade 12, and worked in his mother’s restaurant, 386 Deli on Blanshard Street. But other jobs didn’t work out so well.

There were altercations and outbursts, episodes of paranoia and delusion. Sam was committed to the Eric Martin Pavilion three times. There was also a trip to the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam.

“Sam had a good life — he had two parents who loved him and provided for him. But if you have an illness and that illness is untreated, there’s nothing in this world that you can do to change that,” said Stuart.

“He was on crystal meth because it took him away, gave him a sense of well-being. I could no more change the addiction for him than fly to the moon.”

Eventually, Sam became homeless. For four and a half years, he lived on the streets, where Stuart worried he would be hurt.

 

https://www.timescol...tion-1.24166024

[A Girl is No one]

So sad...

[mbjj]

Sad story. We clearly need facilities to help these folks.

[Mike K.]

Mayor Helps said we would be saving tens of thousands of dollars per person per year if we provided them with low barrier housing.

Where are those savings going? We’re up to many, many millions of dollars now since 2016 and the number of housed individuals continues to grow.

[Nparker]

Shelter alone, without proper mental health treatment, is simply putting a bandaid on cancer.

[sebberry]

Mayor Helps said we would be saving tens of thousands of dollars per person per year if we provided them with low barrier housing.

Where are those savings going? We’re up to many, many millions of dollars now since 2016 and the number of housed individuals continues to grow.

 

She confused low barrier for supported housing with treatment.  

[Victoria Watcher]

I think equally problematic is that there is no serious incentive to stay clean.

[rmpeers]

It's sort of funny-tragic that society is so obsessively focused on every precaution to avoid people dying from COVID, while on the other hand keeps on doing the same old same old while overdoses kill people daily.

Get people into rehab, give people real meaningful incentives to get clean and, yknow, stay alive.

[Nparker]

 

Since the start of the pandemic BC has only recorded 183 COVID-19 deaths.

[Victoria Watcher]

It's sort of funny-tragic that society is so obsessively focused on every precaution to avoid people dying from COVID, while on the other hand keeps on doing the same old same old while overdoses kill people daily.

.

they are quite different though in that one spreads different than the other.

also rehab rarely works with the lower rung of addicts. the ones without job prospects or strong family ties.

in the linked article he even had the latter.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 07 July 2020 - 10:09 AM.

[Kungsberg]

Can Victoria Fix Homelessness Without a Return to Institutionalization?

 

July 4, 2020

 

“…There is a solid link between mental health crises and a decline into homelessness and addiction. An estimated 25-50% of people who are homeless are experiencing mental health issues. 

Locally, this was seen most recently in the case of 65-year-old Judy Trask, who was evicted from a treatment facility in Comox Valley in 2019. She subsequently told local media she had no other option but to move to a tent in a Victoria park.

 

Since the 2012 closure of the Riverview Hospital psychiatric facility in Coquitlam there is almost nowhere providing long-term care for Victorians in the worst throes of a mental health crisis.  In what may be the most under-addressed aspect of the country's growing homeless problem, it is virtually impossible for people to receive stable care in what can be, without intervention, life-long illnesses….”

 

“…In a society without long-term psychiatric institutions, people like Kelly have to patch together their own treatment plans by accessing services from several agencies, including Victoria’s drop in centres. Cool Aid and Our Place Society, arguably Victoria’s most overburdened drop-in facilities, are constantly expanding their services to meet a wide and varied clientele. In the absence of dedicated mental health facilities, drop-in centres have become catchalls for anyone who has any kind of need—veterans, single mothers, immigrants, the traumatized, and the drug-affected are now treated at one site with facilities being so swamped they can’t address the specific needs of any demographic. 

 

VicPD also shoulders a heavy burden. From 2019 to 2020, VicPD confirmed that 20% of their calls had a mental health component; well beyond the 5% typical to other Canadian police forces….”

 

Full article:  https://www.capnews....th-homelessness

[Nparker]

...Judy Trask, who was evicted from a treatment facility in Comox Valley in 2019. She subsequently told local media she had no other option but to move to a tent in a Victoria park...

There are no parks in the Comox Valley?