Youth substance use services and resources

Call your community intake team to get substance use care. Our community teams are available to help you, your family member or friend connect with substance use and/or mental health services. Find your team

The goal of our prevention and education services is to prevent, reduce, delay and minimize harms related to drug and alcohol use by youth. We provide services to both youth and their families and caregivers. Example services include Sexual health clinics   and Supporting and Connecting Youth (SACY).

Our outreach teams offer assessment, counseling, therapeutic intervention, and education for street-involved youth. They help clients start treatment for opioid use disorder, connect them to other health and social services, and provide general harm reduction and overdose prevention education. Examples are the Youth Intensive Case Management Teams (Youth ICMT) (Vancouver, Sea to Sky, qathet and Sunshine Coast) and Youth Urgent Response Team (YURT) (North Vancouver). 

In this treatment, you receive help through your period of withdrawal. Withdrawal management takes place in different places depending on your need, such as at a place where you will stay and sleep for up to one week (inpatient), at a community health clinic or hospital (outpatient), or at home with clinical team support. 

To access services or answer any questions on withdrawal management for youth, call Youth Central Addiction Intake Team (Youth CAIT) 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week 604-209-3705. 

In this treatment, you will stay at a facility and participate in daily, recovery-focused treatment in the day or evening. Inpatient treatment is weeks long. 

Inpatient treatment programs for youth living in the VCH region are located at Peak House and Young Bears Lodge  and Youth Haven.

In this treatment, support groups and social programs that run at a lower intensity than in a treatment program. The length of stay can be months long. An example of an inpatient support recovery program is Foundations. 

These services offer clinical assessments, consultations, treatment planning and aftercare for youth struggling with substances such as alcohol and opioids. These services can be accessed through some primary care providers, or low-barrier, same-day specialized clinics. The youth outpatient support is located in Vancouver, Youth Day Treatment Program.