Seeking update on a sobering centre

MICHAEL POTESTIO STAFF REPORTER michael@kamloopsthisweek.com

Kamloops council wants an update on its desire to have a sobering centre located in the city.

Sobering centres provide short-term shelter, assessment and monitoring of inebriated people and may include referral by police or a hospital. For years, a city-created business case for such a facility has been in the hands of the provincial government.

During its Jan. 31 meeting, council voted unanimously to direct its community and protective services committee to have follow-up discussions with the province, staff and community members on the establishment of a sobering centre in Kamloops.

Council has had similar discussions in recent years following the death in 2019 of an inebriated man in an RCMP cell.

The motion was put forward by Coun. Nancy Bepple after hearing the latest from Coun. Dale Bass about the city’s business case and a presentation from the Day One Society, which operates the Phoenix Centre drug and alcohol recovery centre.

Bass said the business case had been sent to the Ministry of Health, but at last September’s Union of BC Municipalities convention in Whistler, council learned it needed to go to the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, which didn’t exist at the time the business case was submitted.

“It now has to be updated to go to the new ministry,” Bass said.

Day One Society executive director Sian Lewis said her organization wants to host such a facility within its Phoenix Centre, located behind Royal Inland Hospital. Lewis described that as the most cost-efficient option and one that makes sense in terms of the flow of service.

Lewis said Day One foresees the service operating with medical supports 12 hours overnight — opening at 7 p.m. and closing at 7 a.m. the next morning — with people given an opportunity to move to a detox bed if they so choose.

“Potentially, we’d be saving lives,” Lewis said.

She noted situations involving aggressive intoxicated people being held in RCMP cells and charged would still occur, but said the centre would serve people who have not been involved with police and simply need a safe place to spend the night.

Lewis said she feels a sobering centre is a way to get people into detox as the admitting process is more lax. Once within the centre, staff can encourage them to enter the detox program and complete the paperwork to do so.

She said while people can be immediately admitted to a sobering centre, there is a triage process in place for detox that is more intense, one that involves gathering plenty of medical information.

Lewis said up to 85 per cent of people who participate in Day One’s detox program complete it within five to nine days. The program has 20 beds and is adding another five beds for youth.

Lewis told council people who use the program do so voluntary, noting they are free to discharge themselves. She said people are not held against their will, even if they have been ordered by the court to attend.

“They may be court-ordered, but we’re not enforcing that,” Lewis said.