A home-based addiction support and detox program run by Options Community Services in Surrey is keeping its doors open for another year. 

The withdrawal management detox allows people to go through the program in the comfort and safety of their own homes, with the support of a team of health-care and support workers. The program would have had to end at the end of March without additional funding.

Neil Arao, executive director of homelessness, housing and mental health services at Options, said the program will now operate with reduced hours and fewer staff. Arao used funds from a grant Options had previously received to keep the program going. 

"The grant was over a three-year period, so I used the tail end of this last fiscal year, and then this new fiscal year to piece together enough," he said. 

Several local non-profits have since reached out to Options to see how they might be able partner with them. 

"There are lots of community partnerships that we're looking at to see how we can sustain it, which is remarkable," he said. 

Arao said the program, which started in April 2023, received a two-year grant from Health Canada's substance use and addictions program to start it. Health Canada and Fraser Health Authority both told Arao they have no funding currently available for the program. The City of Surrey encouraged the provincial government to fund the program, while the provincial government called on the federal government to fund it again. 

Since the program started in 2023, more than 200 people have completed it, with 18 people currently in it and five on the wait list.

The program can be especially important for those struggling with substance use in the South Asian community, where addiction and substance use are highly stigmatized, Arao said, and where people are known to minimize how much they use. 

Options has many staff members who speak Punjabi and Hindi, so they can help clients through the withdrawal process and offer after-care support and counselling in their mother tongue.

Between 2015 and 2018, Fraser Health .

The program helps people in Surrey, 91原创, White Rock and Delta.

To learn more about the program or to donate visit .