links
Resources for recovery
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Spotlight on Mental Health
This is a community website created by and for Vancouver people receiving medical help for mental health management or addiction recovery. A useful model for any locality, this informative site includes background on projects and upcoming events in Vancouver.
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Last Door Youth Program
In this 8-minute video, young men who "cleaned up" thanks to Last Door describe how this residential program nourished them with the ingredients for new lives.
The Last Door Recovery Society, which runs the Youth Program and others, is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the Lower Mainland.
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Low-cost counselling on the North Shore
Living Systems Counselling, formerly North Shore Counselling Centre, is a not-for-profit counselling organization that offers counselling on a sliding fee scale. Fees are as low as $10 depending on income, number of dependents and current circumstances.
Living Systems has offices on the North Shore and throughout Vancouver. The organization is funded by various municipalities, gaming commission and individual donations.
Counsellors have experience in a range of issues with individuals, couples and families.
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Onsite offers treatment to safe injection site clients
From the City of Vancouver website, January 8, 2009
Liz Moss is the manager of Onsite, a detox and transitional housing facility in Vancouver. It's located upstairs from Insite, Vancouver's Supervised Injection site. Moss spoke with Jennifer Gray-Grant about the facility, which opened in September of 2007, and how it's reaching some of the most street-entrenched drug users in the city.Listen Now
Running time: 9:48 minutes
Support for you as a parent
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British Columbia Teen Challenge
Besides providing "Info for Parents," this site by the international Christian organization Teen Challenge has a particularly thorough Drug Resources section.
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Centre for Addictions and Mental Health
The Centre for Addictions and Mental Health CAMH delivers online tutorials such as the Mental Health and Addiction 101 series. There is a charge for some CAMH print materials (e.g., Addiction: An Information Guide and What Parents Need to Know about Teens: Facts, Myths and Strategies) but others are available online, including the Scoop sheets for professionals and a research piece about the stigma of substance abuse.
CAMH is particularly attentive to the multilingual nature of its constituency—the people of Toronto. This excellent Addictions section offers information in English, French, Amharic, Chinese, Farsi, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Serbian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, and Urdu. (Go to "Information in Other Languages" in the left lower navigation on the Addictions page.)
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Families, Drugs and Alcohol
This 21-year-old organization, based in London, publishes information of value to families and professionals in the UK.
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Grief Club
FGTA member Tabitha recommends this site with these words:
"Melody hopes through her website to offer a safe and compassionate place for people experiencing grief and loss, on various levels, to gain support and sharing. Membership in the club is free. No strings attached."
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HBO's "Reducing the Risks"
Click "HBO.com" at the entry page to arrive at an excellent article by a researcher featured in HBO's program about addiction. You can also view a clip from the DVD.
Ask at your local library if the DVD is available there for lending.
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Here to Help - BC Partners
From the website: "We are a group of seven leading provincial mental health and addictions nonprofit agencies working together as the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information. Since 2003, we've been combining our efforts to help individuals and families better manage mental health and substance use problems."
Among this site's most popular resources are the Family Toolkit's 5 modules. The Family Toolkit is designed to assist families in caring for a family member with a mental illness/addiction by providing information and practical resources. By educating yourself as much as you can about the mental or substance use disorder, you can take an active role in your family member's recovery.
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Learn 2 Cope Forum
Read stories similar to your own in the online forum at Learn2Cope. It grows every day with postings from parents, family members and their loved ones who are recovering from drug addictions. The forum administrators are on the job 24/7, so you can register to read forum notices and discussions at any time.
Based in Massachusetts, the site is a clear window into a region similar to southern British Columbia for the size of its black market in drugs--and the callousness with which its merchants exploit young people. For advocacy-focused parents in BC, there's also food for thought parents in the organization's history and the policy issues it confronts in health care and jurisprudence.
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Low-cost counselling on the North Shore
Living Systems Counselling, formerly North Shore Counselling Centre, is a not-for-profit counselling organization that offers counselling on a sliding fee scale. Fees are as low as $10 depending on income, number of dependents and current circumstances.
Living Systems has offices on the North Shore and throughout Vancouver. The organization is funded by various municipalities, gaming commission and individual donations.
Counsellors have experience in a range of issues with individuals, couples and families.
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Resources in the Yukon
It can be helpful to see how another province interprets its mandate to protect health and to prevent and treat addiction. Read about the programs offered in the Yukon to support families struggling with the effects of alcohol and drug addiction.
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Parents Forever
Here it is, all in one place--information about the professionally facilitated Vancouver support group for parents, siblings and friends affected by the addiction of a loved one.
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Suspect Your Teen Is Taking Drugs or Drinking?
A brief, up-to-date guide from the American Pediatric Association in partnership with the (US) National Parent/Teacher Association.
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United Way Resource Listings for the Kamloops area
A comprehensive list for families in this Thompson-Okanagan hub city.
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Visions quarterly e-zine
Visions is a nationally award-winning journal which provides a forum where many perspectives on mental health and addictions issues can be heard. The journal is written by and for people who have used mental health or addictions services, mental health service providers, family and friends, and mental health and addictions leaders and decision-makers. Visions always tries to ask: "What does it look like in real life?" and "Why should this matter to me?"
You can subscrobe tp the free online 'zine delivery service on the home page of Here to Help.Feature issue; eVisions-Cannabis Vol. 5 | No. 4 | 2009
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Why Join A Support Group?
Among the other excellent resources available on BC's Here to Help website is this module about social support--what it is and why everyone needs it, but especially individuals dealing with an addiction or mental illness in the family.
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Addiction professionals
The Canadian Network of Substance Abuse and Allied Professionals publishes its professional standards on this website. Here you can review the technical and behavioural competencies identified as necessary to the substance abuse workforce. How do professionals in this field ensure quality client care? As a client or the parent of a client, you should know what to expect--and what to demand.
CNSAAP's site also heralds the"first-ever Canadian standards for youth substance abuse prevention" from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA). These take the form of Building on Our Strengths: Canadian Standards for School-based Youth Substance Abuse Prevention-A Guide for Education and Health Personnel. The standards were developed as a resource for those in the field to help strengthen school-centred prevention efforts across Canada. Get acquainted with these standards and be an advocate for effective prevention in your child's school.
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Science and Management of Addictions
Nora Volkow, MD is Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the US. She speaks from deep knowledge about the seriousness of teen addiction, the brain science that explains its distinct nature, and the importance of early treatment. In five short video and audio segments offered on this website, Dr. Volkow provides the medical facts about teen addiction and offers straightforward advice to parents about strengthening their child's chances of navigating the teen years free of addiction.
Science and Management of Addiction Foundation is a privately funded non-profit organization based in Seattle, Washington. Its goals is improving the management as well as the science of substance addiction. From the website:
"Realizing the gap in services for adolescents, our primary goals are to improve early detection and treatment of substance addictions, and to expand resources for the families of drug addicted teens. Through helping and empowering parents to recognize substance abuse early and assist in its treatment as soon as it is recognized, we hope to help teenagers avoid the disabling physical, emotional, and behavioral effects of substance addiction." The foundation's advocacy video echoes the experience of parents and of young addicts on this side of the border. Addiction experts, research advocates, parents and youths in recovery underline that teen addiction is a problem of North American society as a whole--one whose human costs and economic damage are impossible to exaggerate.
