More than $1B announced for mental health, addictions support in 2023

The province has earmarked more than $1 billion for mental health supports, including capital investments, in its 2023 budget. 

B.C.'s finance minister, Katrine Conroy, delivered the province's budget for 2023 on Tuesday, focusing heavily on tax rebates and credits, saying it is trying to help people offset the increasing cost of living in B.C.

"Some believe we should respond to uncertainty by pulling back, by making cuts that reduce services or by making people pay out of pocket for tolls and private health care," Conroy said.

"That's not what British Columbians want.'' 

About $867 million will go toward operating funding, while $169 million will be used for capital investments, according to the province. 

A total of $586 million will be used to support people with substance-use-related illnesses and create a new model of care, the details of which are limited. That money will also be used to add treatment and recovery beds throughout the province and expand Indigenous treatment centres. 

"Mental health is health care," Conroy told CBC's Kathryn Marlow.

Additional treatment beds

In a press conference on Thursday, two days after the budget was delivered, Premier David Eby and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside explained where some of that money will go. 

Eby says the $586 million mentioned above will include 195 new treatment and recovery beds throughout B.C. 

One hundred of those beds will be community adult substance-use treatment and recovery beds, publicly funded with no fees.

The remaining 95 will be dedicated to a "new model of seamless care" that aims to help people throughout the recovery process, with plans to implement this model in three additional sites around the province.

Red Fish Healing Centre expansion

The government also plans to expand the treatment model at Coquitlam's Red Fish Healing Centre — the former site of the shuttered Riverview Hospital — across the province, a 105-bed facility that treats people with some of the most severe mental health and addiction issues in the province. 

The Red Fish Healing centre's model includes trauma-informed practice and virtual care and incorporates physical wellness into treatment. 

B.C. Liberals Leader Kevin Falcon told CBC he's not confident that expansion is actually going to happen. 

"There's absolutely no capital money for them to expand Red Fish anywhere else in the province," he said. 

"They didn't make the important decision of putting actual dollars in the budget."

Mixed reaction

Critics of the budget have pointed out the lack of money for prevention.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," the B.C. Green Party said in a news release. 

"This budget had no investment into preventative mental health care like bringing psychologists under [the Medical Services Plan] or hiring more school psychologists or counsellors."

The Canadian Mental Health Association said it's pleased to see such a "significant" investment in mental health and addiction in B.C.

However, the association said investments in harm reduction are needed to keep British Columbians alive. 

The B.C. Health Coalition said that while the new funding is certainly welcome, improved standards that recognize the benefits of multiple treatment options and consent need to be implemented to ensure an evidence-based approach to treatment. 

Sarah Blyth with the Overdose Prevention Society told The Canadian Press she's hopeful that the investments announced will make an impact on people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

She says she would like the investments in mental health and addictions services to help stem the tide of death that has swept the neighbourhood and continues day by day.

"I can only have hope, or else it would just be total despair with the amount of people who've died,'' she says. "So, there's just only room for hoping that we just continue to help people and put an end to this situation we're in right now.''

Blyth says the overdose crisis is ongoing, and drug users still need access to safe supply and detox on demand, while lack of housing remains a massive barrier to getting people off the streets and off harmful drugs.

"Getting people into normal circumstances with jobs and housing and everything else really improves the situation,'' she says. "We see up to from 700, sometimes even 900 people a day at our overdose prevention site. So, we'd like to be able to get people into housing. It's terrible at the end of the day when we have to close down, and people have to go sleep in the tent in the rain.''