Photo: Marjan Apostolovic

Throughout British Columbia, hundreds of vulnerable people with severe addiction and mental illness are securing housing, having fewer interactions with police and spending less time in emergency rooms, according to the latest numbers from health authority programs.

“Most people with severe addiction and mental illness don’t need to be institutionalized. They need a network of health and community supports that meets their unique needs,” said Health Minister Terry Lake. “The spectrum of services now available in B.C. is helping people who struggle with some of the most difficult circumstances to turn their lives around, by providing targeted services where they best meet clients’ needs, instead of relying on hospitals and police.”

Health authorities, police departments, health care staff and other partners are seeing improvements after just over two years’ collaborative work to increase mental health and addiction supports, as part of the $25-million mental health action plan launched by the Ministry of Health in November 2013.

The evidence-based Assertive Outreach and Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams, which partner with local law enforcement, housing services and clinical professionals to provide proactive mental-health and substance-use treatment and supports, have been particularly successful.

According to government statistics, Interior Health’s Kamloops and Kelowna teams, established in early 2015, have helped reduce client acute care admissions by 73 per cent and average length of stay in care by 54 per cent in their first year.

ACT team clients are also benefitting from rehabilitation supports provided by the program, with every client receiving employment counselling and a connection with safe, stable, affordable housing.

“These are individuals who frequently have substance use issues. They are homeless or at risk of homelessness and they are high users of hospital and police services. Their care needs are complex and they have not benefitted from our traditional mental-health and substance-use programs,” said Lisa Wensink, an ACT team leader in Kelowna. “The team approach is powerful. A big part of our work is liaising with others to provide a really comprehensive service.”

The province’s mental health action plan was created to reduce barriers and service gaps, and to support evidence-based solutions for patients with severe addictions and mental illness. With $20 million in new annual funding allotted to health authorities as part of the plan, every region has seen enhancements, including new rehabilitation and recovery beds, new community outreach teams, new youth group home beds and expanded rural services.