New youth outreach team searches for teens in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
Searching through alleys, tents and hotels in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, members of a new youth outreach team are doing all they can to get vulnerable teens the help they need.
With backpacks full of harm-reduction supplies and snacks, the Vancouver Coastal Health team spends four to five hours per day looking for clients.
"One thing we were noticing at Vancouver Coastal Health is that there were a lot of clientele that were falling through the gaps,” said Carlos Mendez Espinoza, a social worker and one of the original members of the team that launched late last year.
Espinoza said many of their clients have major trust issues with adults, often leading them to resist their help at first.
"When we approach them we have to work with a trauma-informed practice, to make sure we don't re-traumatize them and to allow us to engage in a supportive way to built trust,” he said.
That trauma often comes from extremely rough childhoods, and in some cases sexual exploitation.
"A misconception is often that the focus is the substance and the issue is the substance,” said Elaine Durand, an occupational therapist for VCH’s youth intensive case management team.
“The substance is a coping strategy and in some ways a medicine – there's unspeakable trauma that people have been through,” she continued.
Their goal is to build and nurture relationships with the teens before helping bridge the gap between them and the service providers they’ve stopped seeing.
Durrand said that might involve giving those service providers notice – "a heads up that this person might need a few tries to get to an appointment, they might be late, they might need extra time."
"They require extra space to be able to express themselves, they may get emotional. I can prime situations so that they can enter them, whether it's for physical health or mental health,” Durand added.
The team is currently operating out of the Downtown Community Health Centre near Powell and Princess streets – though plans to open a new drop-in facility in the Downtown Eastside are underway.
The group will also get some welcomed additions in the near future, with nurses and an Indigenous peer advocate set to join once the new facility is operational.
"I think and believe the work we're doing will definitely assist clients," Espinoza said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Air quality advisories issued in 5 provinces, 1 territory
Air quality advisories are in effect across Western Canada as smoky conditions plague some areas, according to the latest forecasts. Here's where.
'Oh my God, you're my brother': Man in his 70s discovers 6 unknown siblings
After receiving a DNA kit one Christmas from his son-in-law, Hugh McCormick soon discovered that he had six unknown siblings, with whom he shared the same birth parents.
No refund for travellers who cancelled flight already scrapped by airline: regulator
Four years on, the controversy over whether airlines owed refunds to passengers after cancelling hundreds of thousands of flights during the pandemic continues to simmer, aggravated by a sluggish, opaque complaints process.
Just how bad are ultraprocessed foods? Here are 5 things to know
Many foods fall under the category of ultraprocessed foods, depending on their exact ingredients. This type of food has been studied a lot lately, and the results aren’t great.
'My family doctor just fired me': Ontario patients frustrated with de-rostering
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
Rates of cancer declining in Canada, but more work needed to save lives: projections
A new study projecting declining rates of cancer cases and deaths in Canada demonstrates the success of prevention and early detection programs, but also highlights areas where more work is needed to save and prolong lives, researchers say.
DEVELOPING Trump trial arrives at a pivotal moment: Star witness Michael Cohen is poised to take the stand
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial is set to take the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
India's mammoth election is more than halfway done as millions begin voting in fourth round
Millions of Indians across 96 constituencies began casting their ballots on Monday as the country's gigantic, six-week-long election edges past its halfway mark. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third straight term with an eye on winning a supermajority in Parliament.
Ottawa pizzeria places among top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world at international competition
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.