Rallies and online fundraisers have started in an effort to keep a long-standing addiction treatment centre open in Penticton.
“I’m so surprised by all of the support that we’re getting from the community, the way the community is embracing the situation,” Pathways Addictions Resource Centre executive director Daryl Meyers told Global News on Thursday.
The centre has operated in the South Okanagan city for 47 years, providing addiction treatment services for drugs and alcohol.
For the past 20 years, it’s been largely funded by the Interior Health Authority (IHA). But this week, IHA said it would be taking over the contract and providing the services itself.
The news means the centre is slated for closure on May 31.
The announcement came as a shock to clients, past and present, as well as staff, who are now rallying to save the centre.
A hastily organized rally was held Wednesday afternoon in a Penticton park after news of the closure broke. Another rally is being planned for next week.
Pathways has also launched an online fundraiser and is hoping to collect half a million dollars in hopes of keeping the centre open.
“We want to provide services so people will not fall through the cracks,” said Meyers.
IHA said it wants to bring the services in-house, under one umbrella, to “better integrate them into the continuum of care, which will enable us to expand, strengthen and increase programs for people who need them.”
IHA added that all other major areas of the Interior have shifted their substance-use counselling services to the same approach.
But Meyers said when it comes to substance use and addiction, she believes services need to be community-based.
“It’s fine for government to take on certain roles, but there is a limit as to what government should take on. And I really feel that if people give up community-based services, they give up a lot,” Meyers said.
“People have talked about addictions being a medical model and it should be moved into health, but addictions are far more than just being treated by a medical model. It really needs a holistic approach and that’s what a community-based organization is able to provide.”
Pathways is hoping to raise money and/or find alternate funding sources to keep the doors open.
While IHA will take over counselling services, Meyers said, with funding, Pathways can continue offering a myriad of other addiction treatment services it currently provides, as well as pivot to create a new “daytox” program.
“People can just walk in the door and say I need treatment today and they can be set up with an outpatient treatment program so they don’t have to leave the community,” Meyers said.
“We don’t have any detox in Penticton. The daytox program would be able to provide them an opportunity to get treatment without having to leave the community, and they can stay here and they can come in every day and get the services that they need to be able to get them through that transition.”
Meyers said closing during the coronavirus pandemic, an opioid crisis and a homelessness crisis is terrible timing and could have devastating results.
“More and more people are turning to substance use because of COVID and the numbers have gone up dramatically,” she said.
“They say that 40 per cent of people are drinking way more than they were before, so this is just the beginning of a fallout that we’re going to see once we get through COVID. There’s going to be a lot of people who will be needing help.”
Click here for more information on the online fundraiser or to donate.
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