Mental Health and Substance Use jobs
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) offers mental health and substance use (MHSU) services in all our locations across the organization.
New incentives are here!
Connect with a new career at VCH for a signing bonus of up to $20,000 for eligible hires. Conditions apply.
Through our multidisciplinary care teams and partnerships with external agencies, we provide diagnosis, treatment, individual and group therapy, rehabilitation, consultation and emergency and urgent services. Special programs include art therapy, early psychosis intervention, mood disorders, concurrent disorders and peer support.
Where you may work
Opportunities for mental health professionals can be found across the spectrum of care including:
- Acute psychiatry
- Community mental health teams
- Crisis intervention and stabilization programs
- Tertiary mental health and substance use services
Why join Vancouver Coastal Health?
- Comprehensive health benefits.
- Grow your career with employer supported development opportunities.
- Full range of lifestyle and career opportunities, in diverse health care settings.
- Award-winning staff recognition programs
- Supportive, world-class team who delivers exceptional care to all.
- Competitive salaries and strong premiums and allowances.
Programs
We offer programs across all communities, including:
ABI Transitional Housing Program
This regional 24/7 program offers transitional housing with a client-centered care and rehabilitation following a new onset acquired brain injury (ABI). Our mission is to maximize clients’ connection to the community, enable participation, foster healing, and support greater housing security. By prioritizing the ‘right care, at the right time, in the right place’, our interdisciplinary team promotes client-driven goals and supports clients impacted by the toxic drug supply crisis.
Access and Assessment Centre
The Access and Assessment Centre (AAC) serves as a single point of access for all Vancouver adults in need of urgent assessments and mental health and addictions – the first of its kind in the province. Operating daily, the AAC provides more easily accessible care, while eliminating the need for clients to navigate a complicated system or default to the Emergency Department (ED). Our aim is to reduce 70% of unnecessary ED visits, a reduction of 4,000 visits per year.
Assertive Community Treatment
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a recovery-oriented mental health service delivery model that uses a psychosocial rehabilitation approach and has received substantial empirical support for facilitating community living, psychosocial rehabilitative services, and recovery for persons who are living with the most serious mental illnesses, have severe symptoms and impairments and have not benefited from traditional outpatient programs.
Carlile Centre
We have opportunities for health care professionals with mental health and substance use work experience to join the new Carlile unit at the HOpe Centre in North Vancouver, BC. This supportive multidisciplinary team will provide acute inpatient mental health and substance use care for older youth and young adults aged 17 to 25 years old.
Early Psychosis Intervention
Early intervention in Psychosis is key to preventing or improving the long course trajectory of individuals who struggle with psychosis. The Early Psychosis Intervention (EPI) Program offers treatment for early and first-episode psychosis, for youth and young adults between the ages of 13 to 30. The program offers specialized and integrated treatment approaches.
Kitsilano Mental Health Team
Kitsilano Mental Health serves adults aged 19+ with moderate to severe mental health (MH), substance use (SU), and concurrent MHSU disorders. The team supports clients at all levels of readiness, whether they are eager, exploring, or hesitant about engaging in services. Some clients may attend under BC Mental Health Act extended leave conditions.
Psychiatric Emergency Assessment and Treatment
The newly developed Psychiatric Emergency Assessment and Treatment (PEAT) Zone within Lions Gate Hospital will provide trauma-informed, recovery-oriented care with a harm reduction lens. It will provide timely access to specialized emergency MHSU services to eight individuals in a safe, designated area.
SALUS House Program at Detwiller Pavillion
This new inpatient psychiatry program is located at UBC Hospital 1 East in the Detwiller Pavilion. It will be a 15-bed unit that will support patients ages 17 and older from across the region. SALUS House will manage the sub-acute patient population, with an expected stay of four weeks. Services would include short-term assessment, crisis counseling, medication adjustments, and stabilization.
Step-Up/Step-Down
The Step-Up/Step-Down (SUSD) program is a mobile outreach service bridging acute and community care for children and youth under 19 with serious mental health and/or substance use conditions. "Step-up" offers higher-intensity treatment as an alternative to hospitalization, while "step-down" provides intensive support for those transitioning from hospital care back to community services.
Substance–Use Treatment and Response Team (START)
The Substance–Use Treatment and Response Team (START) provides first-line treatment options to individuals requiring help to withdraw from, or stabilize, their substance use and who can do so safely, with support, in the community. START offers a safe withdrawal from alcohol and other substances and initiation and titration of opioid agonist treatments.
Vancouver's Inner-City
Vancouver’s Inner-City, home to nearly 18,000 residents with complex health and social needs, is evolving. In response, VCH is creating an integrated health system that coordinates services around client needs. This approach involves collaboration with community providers to deliver client-centered, evidence-based, and cost-effective care through a unified network of community-based health services.
Vancouver Detox Centre
Located at 377 East 2nd Ave in Vancouver, this inpatient medical withdrawal management program offers 24-hour nursing care, pharmacological support, and psychosocial interventions. Activities include yoga, acupuncture, and NA/AA/CA panels, alongside cultural practices like Talking Circles, smudging, and spiritual care. New grads are welcome, with extended orientations and tailored educational support.
Withdrawal Management Team
Located at 780 West 57th at the George Pearson Centre, VCH WDM offers in-patient withdrawal management services with 24-hour nursing care and a multidisciplinary team through pharmacology, psychosocial intervention and low-barrier groups such as yoga and acupuncture. VCH WDM offers cultural services such as a Talking Circle, smudging and spiritual care.
Featured
Bed-Based Substance Use and Withdrawal Management Services
VCH offers bed-based and withdrawal management services (WDM) through various programs, including ACCESS Services, Vancouver Detox Centre, Withdrawal Management, the Substance Use Treatment and Response Team, and the Stabilization Program.
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Featured
Join the team at Carlile
We have opportunities for health care professionals with mental health and substance use work experience to join the Carlile unit at the HOpe Centre in North Vancouver, BC. This supportive multidisciplinary team will provide acute inpatient mental health and substance use care for older youth and young adults aged 17 to 25 years old.
Search Carlile jobs
Meet the Team
“My role offers me a chance to decrease their anxieties about asking for help and hopefully reduce the stigma they feel so they can better understand their own mental health.”
Farinah Kadir, Mental Health Nurse, Access and Assessment Centre
Meet Farinah