New recovery centre opens in Parksville to help vulnerable people close to home

A new recovery centre is opening in Parksville, which will provide supports to people experiencing addiction.

Outreach worker Kelly Morris spotted an opening Thursday and took it. Seeing a dope-sick young woman, trembling on a Qualicum Beach sidewalk, the former addict herself stepped in and offered to get her help into detox and treatment.

“I can bring you in, hook you up with a doctor,” Morris told a shaking Chelsea Poirier.

“That would be wonderful,” 29-year-old Poirier responded.

“It’s a miracle. It’s been like two years for me,” she said.

“When a person says I need it, I’m dying, help me, you either get them immediately or they go back out and we lose them,” said Kelly Morris, a longtime outreach worker in Oceanside.

The scene was evidence of how B.C.’s opioid crisis is hitting home in the small community of Oceanside. Poirier was born and raised, in Qualicum Beach.

“I’ve been waiting so long for somebody to help me like this,” said Poirier.

Yet evidence shows the vast majority of people struggling with addiction aren’t homeless. So a new recovery centre, called Forward Recovery Centre has opened in downtown Parksville in hopes of reaching those who are going unhelped.

“Most people that are struggling with substance use disorders have jobs, houses, families, cars,” said Sareh Tracey, in charge of Addiction Recovery Services at Forward Recovery Centre.

“COVID has created a lot of loneliness and disconnection and we are seeing people resorting to drinking or using substances as a result and we want to be here and support folks that are trying to make a change in their lives,” said Sharon Welch, executive director of Forward Recovery Centre.

So officials say some clients can access detox and treatment centres through Forward Recovery, others might use its counselling services. All are free of charge, provided by former drug users who are now funded by the province and local charities to save lives.

“And this is a blessing for Parksville. We need something for people that are suffering,” said Morris.

Back in Qualicum, Morris loaded up Chelsea Poirier and her boyfriend, bound for detox, as this community tries every approach and tool it has to save people dying to addiction.

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