‘BC Recovers’: Conservative Party unveils mental health and addictions platform

The BC Conservatives say they are going to end the toxic drug crisis and restore mental health services in the province with their “BC Recovers” plan if they win this month’s election.

Leader John Rustad laid out his party’s plan on Tuesday morning, which includes ending illicit drug decriminalization and what he calls the “safe supply experiment.”

The party leader claims that safe supply and the decriminalization of drugs have “cost us thousands of lives and torn our communities apart.”

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!

The BC Recovers plan focuses on prevention, treatment, recovery, and accountability, Rustad said.

“The reckless policies of decriminalization and so-called ‘safe supply’ have failed. More than 14,000 British Columbians have been killed by drugs since the crisis began. We need real leadership to end this nightmare,” he said.

“Similarly, far too many British Columbians suffer in silence from trauma and mental health afflictions but can’t get effective treatment for reasons of cost. That’s unacceptable.”

Rustad says the Conservatives will overhaul B.C.’s treatment system, aiming to cut the average wait time to less than 35 days.

“The first thing we need to do, is we need to make sure that we have standards in this province for wait times, maximum wait times, that can be enforced in this province, to make sure that people who need mental health services will receive those services in a timely way,” Rustad said Tuesday.

“We also need safety for patients and communities where you have individuals who may be at risk of harming themselves or others, we need to make sure that there is safe places for them to be able to receive treatment, and make sure that, quite frankly, that treatment is not being done on the streets.”

Rustad asserts that early mental health intervention is critical, especially in schools, and that the province needs to make sure that it “can provide the kind of support that’s going to be needed within schools to be able to work with schools, with teachers, and make sure that those sort of services can be made available to try to deal with these issues at an early age.”

Expanding on his party’s promise to enforce involuntary care, the BC Recovers plan includes the introduction of Christian’s Law, Rustad explained.

“[It’s] named after a young man who tragically lost his life to drugs after his family’s repeated pleas for involuntary treatment were ignored.

“Drug addiction often robs people of their ability to make life-saving decisions. We will not abandon them. Christian’s Law will provide compassionate intervention for those who can’t ask for help themselves,” Rustad announced.

He went on to say how the Conservatives will support increased family involvement.

“Make sure that families are engaged and involved in what needs to happen and what is what the best practices are for the children as we go through to the treatment that’s needed, we also need to make sure we’ve got accountability with mental health,” he added.

Last month, Dr. Julian Somers Distinguished Professor of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University told 1130 NewsRadio that governments should prioritize perfecting voluntary treatment options before implementing a policy of involuntary care.

Suggesting more “effective” and compassionate approaches for supporting individuals with drug use disorders, Dr. Somers says there is abundant evidence that shows providing adequate housing and support for workforce reintegration can significantly improve outcomes without resorting to involuntary treatment.

“There’s also evidence in Canada demonstrating that it costs about the same to provide effective forms of support as it does to support people while they’re homeless, and in out of the preverbal revolving door of jail, and hospital, and the streets.”

Dr. Somers also raised concerns about the legality of legislating such a policy under the Mental Health Act.

“People who are involuntarily treated would likely include individuals who strongly object and seek legal representation. This would highlight the government’s lack of progress in expanding voluntary support services,” he said.

“In the interim, we would be forced to accept that the government has the wisdom to determine who should be involuntarily treated and who should not,” Somers said at the time.

Rustad says that if the Conservatives win the election, it wants to establish an independent representative for mental health “to provide oversight, public reporting, and accountability to our health system”

Conservatives to reopen Riverview if elected: Rustad

Coquitlam’s notorious Riverview facility will also reopen under a Conservative government, Rustad shares. However, the party wants to redevelop the facility as a “leading centre of excellence in Canada for mental health care and addictions recovery, including secure treatment.”

“We need to look at facilities like this and make sure that we can build out what is needed to make sure we can be leaders both in Canada and the world. That also means that there’s some complexities there that we’ll need to deal with for the federal government on the Canadian Health Act, but I’m confident that these are the tools to deliver for British Columbians across the province,” Rustad said.

Rustad adds that the party will build secure housing for those in treatment, expand local mental health services and expand the 911 emergency call system to include the ability to call in for mental health incidents.

“We’re also going to expand peer-assisted care teams. It’s very important that these are these pieces, these teams are in place. They [take] a lot of pressure off our first responders in British Columbia.

“When it comes to recovery from addiction in B.C., there’s a tremendous amount of work to be done.”