The Executive Director of Positive Living North (PLN) is pleased to see a new sobering centre coming to Prince George.
This is part of a 132-million dollar investment by the province to expand addiction treatment services as the opioid crisis continues to rise.
Angela Carter told MyPGNow.com a new facility like this has been on their radar as the illicit drug crisis worsens in our city.
“It’s been really hard to watch a lot of our members in the community pass away or have overdosed. You know, you see one, two, or three and it gets very tough as a service provider to see that.”
“I am very excited to have this sobering and assessment centre here in Prince George. I have been wanting to have services like this for 10 years and as you can see the overdose crisis is very prevalent in our community.”
Carter added while their organization provides support for people living with HIV, AIDS, or Hepatitis C – the last 20 months have seen them broaden their outreach when it comes to illicit drugs.
“We are making sure our staff and community members are taking naloxone kits, making sure our patrons and members are being served in that sort of way. We are giving out a lot of these kits at the Fire Pit (located on 3rd Avenue) and this new sobering centre is key to that sort of healing.”
“We have been accessing different kinds of funding pockets both provincially and federally to address the opioid crisis along with having more staff and services at the Fire Pit in terms of cold, wet weather so having warming stations available for our most vulnerable.”
The provincial money will also create 195 new beds for substance abuse treatment along with the hiring of 130 extra staff.
In addition to their main office on 2nd Avenue, PLN is providing window service to provide breakfast and lunch daily at the Fire Pit to assist those who are at-risk.