The Solution

This is a Solvable Problem.

"We must move beyond funding to investing, beyond inputs to outcomes, and beyond managing the crisis to ending the disgrace"

- Philip F Mangano, Executive Director, US Interagency Council on Homelessness

  • We can learn from Solutions that have worked in other countries
  • BC Centre of Excellence for Addiction and Concurrent Disorders (the Centre) shall address critical gaps within the BC healthcare system by providing accessible care for the most difficult to treat multi-morbid substance users in BC through cooperation with health authorities and treatment providers or innovative own services in the area of transition between research and practice.
  • Consistent with extensive international research and experience, a recent three-year heroin maintenance and drug substitution trial proved to be very effective at improving health outcomes and reducing crime.
  • With the complex entanglement of those suffering from both mental illness and addiction we need a system that integrates mental health and addiction treatment - not treatment in silo's that works at cross purposes.
  • We should have as many 'tools in the toolkit' for the treatment of addiction as we do for other illnesses such as cancer and heart disease.
  • Vancouver has seen a recent 'scaling up' of resources for housing, we now need to see the same scaling up of resources for those suffering from addiction and mental illness.
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It is time for a Change

  • The necessary partners for change include: the Provincial Government, BC Health Authorities, BC Mental Health and Addiction Services and the private sector which includes the business community and NGO's.
  • We need strong leadership for a comprehensive, integrated system of health care to provide for the best possible health outcomes for our most vulnerable citizens who suffer from mental illness and addiction disorders.
  • Developing funding for an international Centre for Excellence that combines the treatment of mental illness with addiction, thereby creating a completely new approach to a chronic problem.

The Salome study: InnerChange Foundation is providing matched funding for this study with the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. For more information on Salome see: http://www.providencehealthcare.org/salome/

See Salome FAQ (pdf)

If you believe that Change needs to happen, then please consider providing financial support.


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