Downtown Eastside Vancouver clinic to provide ‘new model of care’

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is now home to a new healthcare facility that officials say represents a new model of care.

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) says the new Heatley Community Health Centre will lead to better health outcomes for patients by bringing multiple front-line services together under one roof.

The facility, located at 330 Heatley Avenue, will provide primary care, mental health and substance use services, harm reduction and specialized care.

Six integrated care teams made up of doctors and nurses, counsellors and social workers, psychiatrists, and community liaison workers will work between the Heatley, Pender and Downtown Community Health Centres.

VCH says that integrated model will eliminate confusion for clients and mean they don’t have to travel to multiple facilities to access services.

“We have robust wraparound services with addictions support in a place that’s open 12-hours a day and on-call after that, so when someone walks in and says ‘I need help,’ we are better positioned to provide it,” said VCH director of inner city and mental health and substance use Bonnie Wilson in a statement.

However, while the new facility will include harm reduction in its mandate, a proposed new supervised injection site for the location is still in the application process.

Wilson said it’s still unclear how long it will take to bring that service online.

“We don’t, it’s up to Health Canada right now so we have an application to Health Canada right now, we’re ready to go as soon as we get the okay from Health Canada.”

In an effort to provide more culturally sensitive treatment to Indigenous clients, the facility will also have a designated sacred space which can accommodate smudging ceremonies, along with elders in residence as a part of the primary care team.