Youth wellness van aims to reduce stigma, transportation barriers for young people in Nanaimo

A mobile service van that aims to reduce health barriers for youth up to 25 years of age by providing a variety of wellness services is about to hit the road in Nanaimo and Ladysmith, just in time for the start of the school year.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority says the van, which will be staffed with public health nurses, will offer sexual health information, birth control access and pregnancy and STI testing, along with vaccinations, harm reduction and mental health and substance-use support.

"The kids want a van," said Barney Ellis-Perry, the CEO of the Nanaimo & District Hospital Foundation, on CBC's All Points West this week. 

"They want us to come to them, where it's convenient for them, and when it's convenient …These are really important services they want us to provide."

Ellis-Perry said the Foundation is providing $146,000 toward the project, which was conceived a few years ago by gathering information from focus groups with high school students. He said the resulting mobile service is a collaboration with Island Health, the Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District, and the provincial government.

Esther Pace, the public health manager for Nanaimo, said public health teams met with high school students to determine their health concerns and how to provide services in a confidential way, in contrast to the two other youth wellness support locations in the city.

Ellis-Perry said there's been a strong sense from the young people participating that this is a service that is urgently needed and, being mobile, will also help alleviate the transportation challenges that many young people face. 

Van can also support homeless youth

Amy Worth, the director of development and communications for the Nanaimo Youth Services Association, said she hopes the van will meet some of the needs of the city's rapidly expanding youth homeless population.

"In Nanaimo alone, there are over 100 youth on the streets every single night, between the ages of 13 and 24 years, which is quite a large number," she said, noting there are now at least 14 young people on the wait list for shelter  — up from around two in 2018.

"The list is just dramatically growing," said Worth, citing a rise in mental illness and drug addiction and an "astronomical" increase in demand for a variety of support services.

She said services like this tailored to support youth are necessary.

"I think [the van] will make a tremendous difference." Being able to meet a youth where they're at is huge, and transportation is a large barrier — whether it's [because] they can't afford things like bus passes, or if it's located where the buses don't run."

She said the association promotes any service that will help the city's homeless youth and expects that news of it will also spread through word of mouth among the community. 

Ellis-Perry said he hopes to expand the mobile services to other nearby regions in the future.