Squamish’s Sarah Peters thinks a lot about lost potential.
The 31-year-old is an advocate for people suffering with mental health issues in the Sea to Sky Corridor.
When people with mental health issues can’t get the support they need, their true potential – what they could have become and contributed to the community – is lost, she said.
“It is such a sad thing for me, when there is any loss for human potential.”
Peters struggles with her own mental health after experiencing trauma when she was younger.
While she currently gets the best care available within the public medical system, she believes she would be in a better place both mentally and physically if she had more complete mental health support.
“It is like carrying an extra 20 pounds everywhere and it is a lot harder to do what seems so easy for everyone else,” she said of the post-traumatic stress disorder she suffers.
Though Peters does not have substance abuse issues, many people who suffer with mental health problems do develop drug or alcohol addiction, according to experts. For those individuals living in the Sea to Sky Corridor, help is on its way.
Turning Point Recovery Society is opening a recovery house for adults with mental health and addiction challenges as early as August.
The provincial government has committed $1.6 million toward nine recovery beds destined for the home.
Currently, those needing publicly funded, residential recovery care must travel to the Lower Mainland.
Turning Point, which has operated homes in the Lower Mainland for more than 30 years, has recently purchased a house in Squamish where clients will receive treatment for between three and five months.
“We have a successful track record,” said Brenda Plant, executive director of Turning Point, explaining why she thinks her not-for-profit organization was asked by BC Housing to bring its program to Squamish.
Between 75 to 85 per cent of people with addiction issues whom Turning Point serves also have mental health challenges, according to Plant.
Turning Point operates other such licensed recovery homes on the North Shore, in Richmond and Vancouver. The society does not release the exact address of their homes.
The program is abstinence-based and client-centred, according to Plant. The program supplements the care and counselling individuals are already getting in Squamish through other out-patient programs, she said.
“We look at it as providing critically needed residential care for people with addictions so they don’t have to leave their home community where they may have pre-existing counselling in place through the health authority.”
Peters said she wanted more details about the home before commenting further, but welcomed the news Turning Point was opening in Squamish.
She formerly lived at Iris Place, a Vancouver Coastal Health funded psychiatric group home in downtown Squamish that opened in 1997 and closed in 2010.
There, she got the support she needed.
“I was so, so, so glad that I had that place to go to,” she said. “I was completely supported, at least in some ways, with my life… My room was really gorgeous. I felt I could take good care of myself too.”
Plant said the next steps are to work with the District of Squamish to ensure proper permits are in place, renovate the home and hire approximately eight staff. She anticipates the home being open in August or early in the fall.
She said the society will also need local volunteers for various aspects of the home’s operation. (Anyone interested in working or volunteering at the home can call 604-303-6844.)
Mayor Patricia Heintzman told The Chief the recovery house is appreciated and much needed in Squamish, but added it will not address the critical need for acute mental health care at Squamish General Hospital.
“As the spotlight shines more intensely on mental health illness and treatment, though, we have a greater understanding of the scope of response required to respond to those in immediate crisis,” she said. “There appears to be still unaddressed needs with regards to a safe crisis bed at the Squamish General Hospital, and facilities for youth in mental health crisis. We hope to be able to work with our provincial counterparts in the future to further expand on these critical resources.”
