Comment on The Vancouver Police
MintyFresh@lemmy.world 1 day agoIdk. I’m a public bus driver, am in pretty consistent contact with drug users. Not to mention living in amongst them in the poorer areas of tow. I’m not saying we should arrest them and give them lengthy sentences, but just leaving them on the street ain’t working out.
I think a mandatory “time out” in a facility is in order. At least long enough to work the drugs out of their system. Maybe then they can try for a better way with a little clearer head.
But some days it feels like I’m living in a post apocalypse mad Max type place. It’s bullshit that they’re allowed to just trash anyplace they are. There’s what’s best for them, and there’s what’s best for the rest of us. There’s gotta be something done.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 14 hours ago
Their “mandatory time out” doesn’t have to be punitive, or handled by the penal system at all.
Step one: outreach and detox
A social worker could show up and interview them, ask them if they want help. If they do, great. Get them in a car, take them to a detox center. If someone doesn’t want to go with the social worker (which might be a majority of patients), then the social worker gets their name and contact info if they can, gives them some brochures about the program and about the benefits of recovery, and moves on to interview others.
about non-compliant/unwilling patients:
That’s just the first pass. Another social worker comes by on another day and sees if anyone changed their mind, and if so, great, they take them to the detox center. Eventually though, something will need to be done about those who are unwilling to go; for their own benefit as much as anyone else’s. This should not be done by police though. There needs to be a special task force of social workers who are trained in self-defense, weapons handling, de-escalation, non-compliance, and least-necessary-force techniques. Basically, they show up sometime after the second or third pass and sweep up anyone who wasn’t willing to go. They take them to a special detox facility, still a comfortable and professional clinic, but with higher security in place, so that these patients won’t present problems for the ones who went willingly. If they detox successfully and their behavior improves significantly, they can be given an option to move to the next step with the others. If they remain belligerent or hostile, however, they need to be taken to a special higher-security version of it where they won’t be a barrier to others’ recovery. (Again, a clean and professional facility, but the staff have more specialized training for dealing with non-compliant patients).
Step two: residential recovery
After they detox, transfer them to a residential recovery program with a structured regiment, complete with in-house psychosocial therapy, prescription management, and recreational therapy.
Step three: vocational therapy
When they graduate from this program, get them into vocational therapy or a job training program, with the option to either live on their own (if their recovery has progressed well), or have them move into a smaller share house with a peer recovery coach.
That’s a three-step approach:
(outreach)→detox→recovery→reintegration.
By the end of it they’ll be an active contributing member of society, have community support and hobbies, be enrolled in therapy, have their prescriptions managed, have someone to check in on them and help them maintain the good habits they’ve developed.
Step four: return to full independence
After maybe a year in the transitional housing then they get support searching for their own place and return to full independence with a year of sobriety under their belt, but they keep access to the same therapists, recreational groups, prescription management, and can keep in touch with their peer recovery coach.
It sounds expensive, and it does require a lot of real estate, personnel, trained professionals, food and healthcare, etc. But with how much we already spend on police and prisons, it might actually save the taxpayers money in the end. Especially with universal healthcare; this would be harder to implement in the US where prescriptions can cost over $1000 per month for no reason, but universalizing healthcare first will make it more feasible.
MintyFresh@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Yes! This looks great! Of course we’d rather spend that money on wars.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 3 hours ago
I’m not in canada, sorry :/