A Youth Detox Centre has been unveiled in Kamloops, though the opening date remains unclear.

Located at the Phoenix Centre in Kamloops, Day One Society Executive Director Sian Lewis says the five-bed detox unit is set to help youth 24 and under recover from their addiction.

“It is a total of five separate rooms, so it would be a total of five youths that could be taken into the unit at any given time and they would be a cohort and they would be going through that process together, supported by nurses and doctors and they would be attending groups and one on one counselling, as well as having their meals here and they would be doing that together.”

While Lewis says they hope to have the facility opened by September, she explains there is one final piece that needs to be in place before doors open to youth.

“The staffing for the detox unit, whether it is the adult unit or the youth unit, is one detox worker and one nurse and then we’ve got physicians that support,” she said.

“So we have most of that staffing in place, the one piece that is missing right now is nurses and that is simply because nurses throughout Canada and beyond are the hardest professionals to find right now.”

Meanwhile, Lewis says they have created a home-like environment in the new unit once it opens, to help create a safe space for youth while detoxing.

“We have had feedback from youth specifically about if they could have anything on a detox unit, they wanted a comfortable bed so we made sure we purchased comfortable beds, and beautiful linens, we will have a partnership with Tkemlups te Secwepemc -hopefully, we don’t know yet- where we could also do some murals on the walls that are indicative of this territory and these people.”

In the past, the Society accommodated youth within the 20-bed adult unit, by providing an entire room to a youth within a two-bedroom setup.

Lewis says the new youth centre, will help address a growing need for a separate unit.

“It just makes it more difficult if they (youth) are in with adults. There’s the potential for adults – not on purpose – taking advantage of that young person wherever they’re at in life and then the youth don’t have peers to connect with either if they’re on an adult unit,” said Lewis.

“By having them (youth) on a separate unit, they’re with like-minded people because they’re with other youth or with others that they can relate to and have some social connection.”

The new, five-bed youth detox unit is being funded by Interior Health.