Reporter’s Notebook: Why The Wren dug into recovery services in Kamloops

Content warning: This story mentions overdose, substance use, the toxic drug crisis and death. Please read with care. To connect with your local mental health or substance use centre, call 310-MHSU (6478).

The Wren strives to ensure its reporting answers community questions and points to solutions. With this goal in mind, we created a series called Roadmap to Recovery, rooted in research and local voices. The series seeks to compile resources for people seeking addiction treatment in Kamloops (Tk’emlúps), while exploring what barriers people might face when reaching out for help.

To ground the series in what Kamloopsians think about the opioid crisis and want to know about harm reduction, I hit the streets of the Kamloops Farmers’ Market. Like many cities, the weekly downtown market offers a gathering place for the community. I figured this was my starting point to talk to people.

I walk up and down the street. The market is packed despite impending storm clouds. I see folks from all walks of life, varying in age, race and gender expression. I speak with a manager of a local business. They say they’ve noticed a shift in the downtown core since the pandemic.

This issue isn’t isolated to Kamloops, they add, emphasizing other cities likely have it the same or worse. Despite this, the manager speaks from a place of empathy, an openness to understand the complexities of navigating community care while running a business. 

I approach a local advocacy group booth to chat with a volunteer, asking for their take on access to services as a senior. They express concern over a severe lack of funding, staff retention and overall access to health care services, including family physicians. They also mention the rumour of people being shipped from Kelowna to Kamloops, and how this is allegedly overflowing services and wait times. I thank the volunteer for sharing their perspective.

While chatting with Greg Unger, the manager of the farmers’ market, I learn he has years of experience in local food policy programs. Unger also works with Interior Community Services, overseeing the community gardens program. In all of his day-to-day work, Unger works directly with community members to increase food security. 

I ask him the sort of comments he hears related to the overdose crisis, particularly near downtown Kamloops. Unger takes care to recognize the difference between visible homelessness and the perceived increase in crime.  

“The two are not related,” he says, referring to the Kamloops RCMP’s assertion that the recent rise in business theft and break-ins have been associated with organized groups of repeat offenders.

Then he shares a story of a young woman appearing distraught earlier in the day at the market. 

Unger notes that in situations like these, the expectation is that he would ask the person to leave. Instead, he opted for a more compassionate approach. 

“I went and I talked to her,” he recounts. “I discovered that somebody stole $350 from her last night, and she’s unhoused. She’s from Merritt. She’s stuck in Kamloops. She’s already on her last straw. And now, somebody’s stolen all her money.

“So of course she’s gonna be walking through the market crying — she’s having a really bad day. That’s not a reason to judge that person,” he says.

When it comes to people experiencing homelessness and mental health issues, Unger offers the concept of upstream or often unseen root causes, using a metaphor to illustrate. 

“You’re standing on a riverbank and you see all these people drifting down the river, and you want to run out and pull them out of the river, and that is very important,” Unger says. 

But we also need to find out how these people got into the river in the first place, he adds. “Why are they jumping off the bridge way upstream?” 

Unger’s message offers some encouragement. Instead of focusing entirely on the crisis response, can we look at the relationships between social issues like housing unaffordability, rising rates of homelessness, toxic drug deaths and crime and disorder that got us here?

Of course, the need for solutions is urgent. As we approach the end of 2024, the latest BC Coroners report on unregulated drug deaths indicates 1,365 people have died as a result of unregulated drugs. That is six people each day, on average, making it the leading cause of unnatural death in B.C. 

Here in Kamloops, in the first seven months of 2024, the community lost 53 residents.

In response to the crisis, terms like harm reduction and safe supply have gained mainstream attention while being thrown into political debate. Some conservative politicians in B.C. maintain harm reduction measures like safe consumption sites and safer supply are contributing to disorder and deaths. They say more public funds should go toward treatment and recovery programs. 

Other politicians acknowledge the life-saving benefits of harm reduction measures alongside other supports like housing, mental health and evidence-based treatment.

To people trying to navigate drug and alcohol use recovery, terms like detox, second stage and holistic can be confusing to understand. 

“There’s no roadmap to recovery,” points out Sean Marshall, executive director of the Blue House Recovery, Kamloops’ only men’s sober living house.

“I truly think there should be a roadmap to recovery, something that outlines all of it very easily that people can rely on. But there just isn’t. So people are kind of left just calling around.”

“If somebody needs help, or somebody has a family member that needs help, there’s no website or book that you can go to that explains ‘this is the first step in detox. And this is the second step in treatment,” Marshall says.

In an effort to fill this gap, the province has made more resources available online.

While there is no single trajectory to recovery, as every person’s experience is unique, The Wren’s goal is to break down different words and phrases used in recovery programs and provide information on what service providers and advocates in Kamloops are doing to combat the toxic drug crisis. 

To get clarity on this complex system, I visited the sites of as many programs and services as I could, interviewing recovery professionals who are on the ground, working diligently to meet the demand for recovery in Kamloops and often, as I learned, nearby communities with fewer resources. 

Speaking with Trevor Starchuk, a student of social work with lived experience of drug use and recovery, I learn more about what’s needed to save lives. Starchuk has been using community-based research to develop an evidence-based and holistic addiction recovery framework that can improve success rates. 

“Obviously, what we’re doing isn’t working,” Starchuk says. “We have epic system failure right now. And the cost is mass casualties.”

About 225,000 people are at risk of overdose every day. Yet the province has 3,596 publicly funded treatment beds and an estimated 17,000 private treatment beds, Starchuk estimates.

“The [recovery] organisations and stuff that are in town are well intentioned. It’s just a lack of funding,” he explains. “There’s such a small amount of funding available for a very complex problem. And it’s about paying the bills and keeping your lights on. That’s just a fact.”

For the many drug users who can’t access or are not ready to enter into treatment facilities, for various reasons, he says the evidence points to the life-saving benefits of safe supply, especially when paired with other essential needs like housing. 

Another major gap I learn of at the start of my research is that Kamloops does not have an in-patient, women-specific treatment program. The closest all-women residential program, inclusive to Two-Spirit and gender diverse folks, is hundreds of kilometres away in Vancouver, at Heartwood Centre for Women. 

Two recovery programs are designated for men only in Kamloops, the Men’s Recovery Program through Mustard Seed and Blue House Recovery, totaling 22 beds. 

The Tree, a day treatment resource, is the only recovery service in town that is specific for women, mothers and their families. Executive director Susan Wright says her “number one goal for here is that women know that they have a place to go to, no matter what is going on for them.” 

Wright says The Tree prioritizes relationship building and community for women in Kamloops. 

“There’s no expectations, there’s no judgement. If they want help with something, we’re here to help them or we’re here to feed them, give them donations, workshops — just really help them build that social support network.”

The more women are connected to each other, Wright finds, “That’s when we start making changes.” 

The Wren is not the first to provide information on local recovery resources. A New Tomorrow hosts an online list of services in Kamloops and Interior Health’s Substance Use Services overview provides information as well. But local journalism can play an important role in helping people understand the complexities and nuances of substance use and recovery. 

This series comes on the cusp of an announcement by the B.C. Government to improve access to addiction and recovery care in growing communities like Kamloops with already-strained health care systems. 

The new streamlined process, also called Roadmap to Recovery, expands from a pilot program in Vancouver and aims to ensure anyone in B.C. can call a single phone line to get information, receive a medical assessment and access individualised recovery care.

The new Opioid Treatment Access Line connects callers to local doctors and nurses who can prescribe life-saving opioid medications and help support ongoing treatment. The confidential toll-free line is at 1-833-804-8111 and open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.

Marshall welcomes the addition of any educational resources that help a person navigate the complex recovery system. “As a small nonprofit, we don’t have the resources to spend all day on the phone with people,” he explains. “It’s kind of frustrating that they’re in that position in the first place.”

If you or someone you know is struggling, visit HelpStartsHere.gov.bc.ca 

You can also visit the Interior Health Authority’s Mental Health and Substance Use Services