“The most important call I’ve made in my life,” is exactly the feedback Island Health’s Mental Health and Substance Use program was hoping to hear following the launch of the Service Link phone line one year ago.
Youth living with complex mental health needs and behavioral challenges now have access to an intensive day program. This new program provides therapeutic and educational services to support recovery while maintaining close, ongoing connection with youths’ home communities.
People who use unregulated substances in the Port Hardy area now have access to free local drug-checking services to help reduce unregulated drug overdoses and save lives.
Calling all youth in the Island Health region with a passion for harm reduction: have you or someone you know, worked on a project in the past year that focused on reducing harms related to unregulated substances?
Island Health and the University of Victoria are pleased to announce Dr. Colette Smart is the new Mental Health and Substance Use (MHSU) Research Scholar in Residence.
People who inhale illicit drugs now have access to a permanent indoor inhalation overdose prevention service in downtown Victoria, as part of ongoing efforts to respond to the toxic drug supply public health emergency and save lives.
People who experience acute and severe mental health challenges which significantly impact on their day-to-day life, can now receive recovery-oriented, trauma-informed treatment through an intensive Island Health day program based in Victoria.
Island Health is introducing three Care and Connection Kiosks at hospitals in Campbell River, Nanaimo and Victoria offering community members an innovative way to access free, life-saving, harm reduction supplies and information about mental health and substance use services, supports and treatment.
For the second year, Island Health is allocating up to $1 million for resilience and safety grants aimed at helping improve mental health, mitigate the harms associated with illicit substance use and build youth resilience.
Cameron Webster is living proof that life sometimes has a way of coming full circle. In 2014, Webster became a client of Island Health’s Early Psychosis Intervention Program in Victoria after being diagnosed with psychosis; a year later he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which features symptoms of schizophrenia and mood disorders.