Noting one in five Canadians will be diagnosed with a mental illness during their lifetime - that's seven million people - provincial Health Minister Terry Lake announced this week plans to open 40 beds at Coquitlam's Riverview Hospital for people with severe additions and mental illness.
But of the 40 temporary beds, just 14 will be newly created spots while the other 26 will be transfers from the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction.
The number of new spaces isn't enough, said Coquitlam-Maillardville NDP MLA Selina Robinson, whose constituency includes the 102-year-old Riverview site.
"Let's be clear: 14 beds will not be noticed in the Downtown Eastside, the hospital emergency rooms or in use of police services to address frontline mental healthcare issues," Robinson told The Tri-City News.
The city of Vancouver has also called on the provincial government to set up 300 long-term beds for the mentally ill, a figure Lake disputes.
His announcement on Wednesday - made before city and Fraser Health officials at the Hillside building - comes as BC Housing is nearing the end of its year-long visioning process on the future of Riverview. During the exercise, most respondents have called for mental health facilities to return to the 244-acre site, whose buildings have been mostly empty since Victoria shuttered it two years ago, in its 100th year.
Lake vowed the province will "not be returning to a time when patients were institutionalized." Rather, he said, its new rehab and recovery program with the Provincial Health Services Authority and Coast Mental Health will allow patients to get the "continuum of care" they need before transitioning back to their families or caregivers.
Under the new plan, 25 men will be accommodated at the Brookside facility at Riverview while another 15 women will be placed at Hillside. Coast Mental Health will be the operator, providing, among other things, support and assessment, crisis intervention and psychiatric and medical treatment as well as life and social skills, drug and alcohol recovery programs and counselling.
@jwarrenTC
