This blog is being written in response to Directions Youth Detox (the only youth detox in Vancouver) being defunded by the provincial health authority Vancouver Coastal Health on Tuesday, March 29, 2022.
Direction’s Youth Detox is set to close in June 2022.
What is Detox?
#Detox is the process of not using substances and having your body go back to a regulated state not dependent on substance use. Addiction to substances is physical and mental. Detox allows the physical body to reboot in a safe environment, usually under some sort of medical supervision. Detox can include using medications such as Suboxone, Methadone, Seroquel etc., to help relieve the physical impacts of detoxing so the body is not put under more stress then necessary when withdrawing from a substance.
In Vancouver area there are 3 main detox facilities. Harbour Light, Vancouver Detox, and Direction’s Detox. Harbour Light and Vancouver Detox are only for individuals who are over the age of 18 years old. Direction’s Detox is/was the only detox facility that allowed and catered to youth. Vancouver Detox is the only detox facility that is a medical detox facility.
What does Medical detox look like at Vancouver Detox?
Medical detox is 24/7 medical supervision of detoxing. In Vancouver Detox’s facility this means having trained nurses who specialize in withdrawal management 24/7. It also means having doctors who come in daily to prescribe medication to make sure that people withdrawing from alcohol do not have seizures, hyperthermia, heart palpitations, increased heart rate and the list goes on. The effects of withdrawal from alcohol, if strong enough can kill a person depending on their overall health, age, and other substance use combined.
Vancouver Detox also has specialized detox workers who watch clients 24/7 and support them through the mental process of withdrawing. Vancouver Detox has social workers and counsellors to help set clients up with treatment plans for when they leave detox. Other services included by Vancouver Detox are acupuncture, talking circles, and specialized nightly AA/NA/CA meetings.
Why Do we need medical detox facilities?
Currently Vancouver Detox is at over a 100 day (over 2 months) waitlist to get a bed and start detox. Alcohol creates a physical dependence in the body that we spoke about earlier. Because a person can die from alcohol detox, having a medical detox facility that makes sure patients are taken care of 24/7 is the only way to keep people safe while detoxing from this substance.
There is another substance that can also cause death while detoxing from it. They are benzodiazepines (a.k.a.: benzos, valium, Xanax, klonopin etc). Benzos also cause a physical withdrawal to occur. Benzos are nervous system depressants. When detoxing from benzos side effects can include:
Anxiety
Insomnia
Irritability
Restlessness
Hand tremors
Muscle spasms
Headache
Sweating
Racing pulse
Hyperventilation
Nausea or vomiting
Aches and pains
Panic Attacks
Hypersensitivity to stimuli like light and touch
Abnormal bodily sensations (skin-crawling, goosebumps)
Depression
Problems with concentration and memory
Visual disturbances (flashes of light or blurred vision)
Auditory, tactile, or visual hallucinations
Feelings of unreality
Delirium
Grand mal seizures
The other detox facilities in Vancouver will not take individuals detoxing from benzos or alcohol due to the risk of hallucinations, delirium, and seizures. These side effects can harm the frontline workers who are taking care of the patients and if not properly medicated and watched a patient can die from them.
Delirium is dangerous because people forget where they are, who they are, and can even cause outburst of violence to occur due to the confusion the person is experiencing from it. Seizures are dangerous due to the stress it puts the body under.
Detox of alcohol and benzos can kill an adult, no matter a youth who is not fully grown.
It is Vancouver Coastal Health's policy that if a person is using alcohol or benzos and want to detox they have to go to Vancouver Detox due to it being a medical detox facility.
How does this relate to Directions Detox being defunded and closing?
Directions Detox is a facility for detox but not from alcohol or benzos because they do not have 24/7 nursing on site. In the last 2 years we have seen benzos mixed in the street illicit substances because of COVID impacting illicit street substances. Meaning a person might think they are buying heroine, but they are actually buying heroine mixed with benzos. (This is also what is causing the increases of OD’s in the last few years, but that is an entirely different issue.) When a person wants to detox they might not even know they are also withdrawing from benzos because of these street substances.
This means that youth did not have a medical detox facility in Vancouver and that if they were detoxing from alcohol or benzos the majority of the time they were sent to Creekside (a detox facility ran by a different provincial authority due to it being a few towns over) or a hospital.
FRONTLINE BADDIES TAKE ON ALL OF THIS:
It is incredibly dangerous that VCH is pulling their funding of the ONLY detox facility for youth in Vancouver. It was already dangerous that VCH did not give them enough funding to have nurses on 24/7 to be a medical detox facility. This impacts the youth that are living in Vancouver and trying to become sober. It also impacts the youth addiction treatment centers.
For a youth to be able to attend an addiction treatment center they have to detox BEFORE entering treatment. By defunding and subsequently shutting down the only youth detox center in Vancouver, Vancovuer Coastal Health is making it even more difficult for a youth to access addiction treatment. It is already hard enough to convince a youth to want to live a sober lifestyle. But when youth do come to this decision and want to do it, now there is nowhere in Vancouver for them to go to, to safely detox.
Frontline Baddies is calling for Vancouver Coastal Health to either refund Directions Detox and give additional funding to make it a medical detox facility. Or create a medical detox facility for youth before June arrives so there is no interruption of service to youth.
We have heard talks/rumors that VCH is intending to send nurses to be doing in home detox for youth. For the above reasons mentioned this is not enough. Youth need 24/7 medical supervision just like adults. This also does not help youth who do not have a permanent homes or who might be living outside of Vancouver city, as many youths from surrounding areas go to Direction Youth Detox for detox.
For Vancouver Coastal Health to not be taking youth detox more seriously in the middle of an opioid crisis where over 2,200 people died from OD alone last year is disheartening. It has severely impacted the faith that frontline workers have in the community and has undermined the hard work that these individuals have put in with their clients. It is yet another blow to us. We have all lost clients to the opioid epidemic. We had to struggle through COVID and new protocols that negatively impacted the youth we worked with on a daily basis. To be completely honest, it is the equivalent of being handed a spoon with a hole in the middle of it and told to go water the animals with it.
It’s insulting.
It’s degrading.
Our youth deserve better than this. Our frontline workers deserve better than this.
Vancouver Coastal Health, we are calling on you to do better and be better than this.
Here is the link to sign the petition. Please sign it if you agree with anything that was said in the above. Please sign it for our youth. Please sign it for our frontline workers. Vancouver Coastal Health should be making our jobs easier in a pandemic and opioid crisis, not even more difficult.
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