Pubdate: Thu, 3 Jan 2008
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Susan Duncan, The Daily News, Kamloops
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

ADDICTION CRISIS IGNORED BY GOVERNMENTS

Why, why do we continue to be so backward in this society? Is it 
money? It must be the use of short-term money that makes us refuse to 
recognize what needs to be done for the long-term good.

Shutting down Kiwanis House, which has served the addicted here in 
Kamloops for 37 years, is like closing a hospital in the midst of a 
medical emergency.

Drug and alcohol abuse is the plague of our country, possibly our 
world. Yet our governments' approach to solving this problem is to 
put our money into punishing the victims. That's because the public 
still doesn't -- or won't -- get it.

People with addictions are the victims of a disease.

Yes, they have a choice to get better, unlike patients of a terminal 
ailment. Some, however, don't have the ability to make the right 
choice and they die as practising addicts or alcoholics. That's a 
tragedy we should all mourn.

So when addicts (and alcoholics are addicts) reach out for help, we 
need to be there with immediate resources. "We" being government, 
society, the community and those of us fortunate enough to be able to 
stay sober.

Interior Health told Kiwanis House some months ago it would not fund 
it as a residential addiction treatment facility. It wanted the board 
to provide supportive housing for recovering addicts instead. 
Kiwanis, run by a non-profit organization, said it wanted to stay 
true to its roots as an abstinence-based treatment centre.

Off it went on its own to attempt to offer that treatment privately, 
save for three publicly funded beds.

Tragically, the organization did not have enough time to market its 
treatment centre properly and now has no money to operate. It shut 
its doors to clients last week.

The other problem for Kiwanis House officials is they believe in an 
abstinence-based model of treatment whereas the accepted method now 
is something called harm reduction. Interior Health authorities in 
charge of funding addiction services believe in harm reduction, 
meaning an addict is not automatically tossed from the program if he 
or she has a slip.

That doesn't mean recovering addicts can shoot up or toss back 
shooters on a treatment centre's premises, but they can come back if 
they have a relapse during the course of treatment.

Beating any addiction is the most difficult test of mental and 
physical strength any human being can undergo. It can be horrifically 
difficult, depending on the individual.

There are benefits to harm reduction. It is probably the best way to 
help a young addict quit. Young people have difficulty with the 
totality associated with never again using the drug their body craves 
and which is associated with the "party."

An immediate end to that use is rarely successful when it comes to 
young people. That's where Crossroads residential treatment centre in 
Kelowna comes in. It follows the harm-reduction approach.

On the other hand, there is also a place in treatment options based 
on complete abstinence. If people can get through a seven-day 
detoxification program and move into the next stage of treatment, 
there is a very good chance they won't use their drug of choice for 
the next 33 days of therapy.

Kiwanis House has saved lives. As with all addiction treatment 
centres, the failure rate is higher than the success stories, but any 
person saved from addiction is a huge plus for society. The financial 
savings alone can't even be calculated because we won't ever know 
what that person might have cost us as a lifelong drunk or junkie.

What's happened with Kiwanis House can be explained away, as it has 
been by the health minister and our MLAs, as the board's own fault 
for not accepting the out offered by Interior Health.

But those explanations are unreasonable and short-sighted.

When we have addicts asking for help, we need to provide it. To shut 
down a long-established centre because it can't yet pay its way 
independently hurts all the cities in B.C. and Canada that have 
nowhere to place an addict who wants to get better.

Our MLAs have said the 51 addictions beds available in Kamloops are 
sufficient. Who do they think they are kidding? There is a serious 
and growing problem with alcohol and drug abuse in our society.

Addiction is a money-sucking, family-destroying disease. We can no 
longer continue to ridicule, condemn and jail addicts. As a society, 
we must stretch our hands out to them and say help is here, and then 
provide it the moment any one of them indicates he or she is ready to 
take that life-saving step.

And, no, that's not a bleeding-heart sentiment. That's hard cold practicality.

Now if only our provincial government would ignore the politics being 
played with Kiwanis House and show the common sense needed to come up 
with a solid plan to reopen the facility.

After all, who closes a hospital in the middle of an epidemic? 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake