Photo: Castanet Staff

The mayor of Kamloops has asked MLA Peter Milobar to lobby Victoria for a complex care pilot program in the Tournament Capital.

Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian made the request during Thursday’s Thompson-Nicola Regional District directors meeting.

This week, the province announced complex care pilots in four locations — two in Vancouver, one in Surrey and one in Abbotsford. Christian said he’d like to see one set up in Kamloops.

“It’s primarily to meet the needs of individuals with chronic untreated mental illness, complicated by addiction or now by acquired brain injury,” he said.

“We estimate there’s about 30 such individuals on the streets of Kamloops, and they actually are walking the streets of Kamloops probably having come from the entire region.”

Christian said that small number of people creates significant headaches.

“In and of themselves, they are creating a great deal of chaos, both for businesses and customers,” he said.

“And, most importantly, their health needs are not being met by the current housing continuum.”

Milobar said he will lobby on behalf of the city. He said it looks like complex care administration will be done at the health-authority level — a potential problem for the region if Interior Health were to decide Kelowna needed the beds more than Kamloops.

“Why that’s a concern for me is … when you ask for just about anything, it gets referred back to the health authority,” he said.

“My worry is that if it’s health-authority based, we’re back into that battle of the two K-Towns — and where is complex care going to land?”

Milobar said he would lobby government in Victoria on behalf of Kamloops and area.