Pubdate: Wed, 25 Feb 2004
Source: Sherwood Park News (CN AB)
Copyright: 2004 Sherwood Park News
Contact:  http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1730
Author: Chris Munkedal of the Fort Record
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

NARANON ESTABLISHED

Sherwood Park News - NarAnon, short for narcotics anonymous, has been 
established by a drug awareness committee as a means to offer support for 
friends and relatives of drug addicts.

As the sponsor, the Fort Saskatchewan Drug Awareness Steering Committee is 
confident the service is a valuable one.

"I think it will be used," said Penny Siminiuk, youth and family counsellor 
out of the Fort Boys and Girls Club. "Some support groups in Sherwood Park 
have expressed some interest in the program after hearing about it."

Siminiuk is hoping to draw people in from other communities and expand the 
program to the areas including Sherwood Park, Gibbons, Bruderheim, and 
Lamont. In response to discovering a need for such a group, Siminiuk began 
searching Web sites of local support groups, and drug abuse counselling 
centres. Eventually she came across the United States based NarAnon located 
in California. But simply typing in the NarAnon name will pull up various 
Web sites, including a similar religious sector with the same name and goal.

Siminiuk wants to make it clear that the program has no ties to any 
specific religious group.

"This is not a religious organization, treatment centre, or counselling 
agency," she assures. "It's simply a non-professional organization where 
members, on a first name basis only, can share their experiences, and 
discuss methods they can use to solve common problems."

"In the NarAnon program, we learn that drug addiction is a disease that we 
are not responsible for," said Siminiuk. "A family member or friend may be 
using drugs and at first some try to ignore it. We then try to compensate, 
we adjust our lives, our attitudes and personalities to the behavior of the 
person."

Although a drug user is often not willing to quit despite being confronted 
with facts, Siminiuk said NarAnon will cater to the friends and family 
members of a user, "who are not ready to watch someone they care about 
disappear into their addiction."

"This is a program with the single purpose of helping relatives and friends 
of an addict, whether that addict is still using or not," she said.

The NarAnon program will start in March, and is free of charge. For more 
information call Siminiuk at 992-0103.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom