Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jan 2017
Source: Cloverdale Reporter (CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Cloverdale Reporter News
Contact:  http://www.cloverdalereporter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3407
Author: Samantha Anderson

AWARENESS KEY TO PREVENTION

"It's one thing to have a sick child," says Andra Dunn. "But to have
one that is actually gone?"

She doesn't answer her own question; it's not an answer she can give.
In 1987, Dunn gave birth to two twin boys. In 2014, she buried one.

Jermaine was 27-years-old when he died, a college graduate with a
diploma in business management, a smart, successful man with loving,
supportive family and friends.

He was also an opiate addict.

He overdosed exactly once, but once was enough.

"He wasn't what people think of when they think 'drug addict,'" says
Dunn. "He didn't use every day, he wasn't an addict who couldn't go to
work or go to school."

"With Jermaine, it just didn't seem that bad," says Dunn. "One of the
biggest problems is that you don't see the addiction for the death
sentence that it is, and then it's too late."

Awareness is key in preventing addiction from taking the lives of
other young people in the community, says Dunn.

It's not an opinion she has alone.

On Tuesday, Jan. 17, Dunn will speak at Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary, as
a part of a panel on drug use and the current fentanyl crisis in B.C.

The Lord Tweedsmuir PAC invites parents, students, community members -
anyone interested in attending - to come to the meeting. Information
will be provided by an expert panel of representatives from the Surrey
RCMP, Fraser Health, Surrey Safe Schools and Pacific Community
Resources Society.

The night is meant to raise awareness and to educate the public on
addiction and drug use among youth, and how, as a community, Surrey
can work together to face those issues.

"As overdose deaths continue to climb, it's more important than ever
that we acknowledge this and educate ourselves," says organizer Linda
Stomberg, vice president of the Lord Tweedsmuir PAC.

Addiction resources for Surrey youth

"All high schools have students that are most likely using drugs,"
says Nancy Smith, Youth Adversity Liaison.

"They say that 10 per cent of the population struggles with addiction
at some point of time in their life," she says. "We have 72,000
students in the school district."

Smith leads the Surrey school district's Substance Use Liaison Team, a
Surrey Safe Schools program that acts as a resource and guide for
students who have concerns about drug use, questions about drug use,
or are in need of support for an addiction.

"We meet with (students) one on one, and if they need any further
support we help them navigate the system," says Smith. "If they need
to go into treatment, if they need detox, if they need street
outreach, if they need police support, we help connect them to those
services."

When Smith spoke to The Reporter in late December, she said her
liaison team had already received 150 referrals since the beginning of
the school year.

Although she was unable to say how that compared with previous schools
directly, she said the numbers were "way up."

"That's a lot for us, for the first three months of school," she
says.

The fall of 2016 also saw record-breaking numbers in fentanyl
overdoses across B.C. In October alone, overdoses claimed 63 lives.

Although the increased number of referrals isn't directly related to
B.C.'s fentanyl crisis, Smith and her team have been to each school in
the Surrey district to educate administrators on fentanyl-specific
topics, including how to safely perform drug seizures and deal with
youth that may be experiencing health issues due to drug use.

The team's core messaging to students stays the same, regardless of
any fentanyl crisis: they focus on teaching healthy decision making,
debunking myths, and discuss first-time use, the reasons why people
might choose to use drugs and how students can make different choices.

Prevention is key

Preventing drug use and addiction is the most important part of the
substance use team's work.

"We would prefer to stop the train before it leaves the station," says
Smith. "Because when the train has left the station it's going to be a
lot more intensive work, and it's going to absorb a lot more resources."

Andra Dunn says that preventative help would have helped her son the
most. When her family came together to support her son through his
struggle with addiction, they found that the services available for
his recovery didn't meet his needs.

Dunn, who works in the medical field, pulled every string she could to
get her son the help he needed. But because he wasn't an addict who
required hospitalization, he couldn't see many of the addiction
specialists who were busy with "critical" cases. Jermaine couldn't
even find a family doctor who would treat him - Dunn says he was
turned away by three general practitioners who said they would not
treat an addict.

"If you have surgery and you go home after your operation and need
help keeping your wound clean, there are nurses who can come and help
you dress your bandage," says Dunn. "There should have been educated
people, a community resource, that could have come in and talked to
him."

"In the healthcare community, there is not a lot of help for your
working addict," says Dunn. "He didn't want to miss work, or sit for
hours in a rehab clinic that was only open during business hours. He
didn't want anyone catching wind that something was wrong."

When Jermaine went to a seven-week rehab and detox program in
Kamloops, he told everyone he was leaving to pursue a job prospect.
"When he first went in, he thought he was just a bad person," says
Dunn. "But he learned that addiction is just like every other disease,
and that it needs to be treated."

Educating about risk

The belief that addiction or drug use only happens to "certain people"
can be a deadly one.

"We need to debunk that myth with kids. It's not a certain group that
has this problem," says Smith. "(Addiction) doesn't differentiate
between what kind of house you live in or if you have two parents or
if you get straight A's. That's the message we've always given our
kids."

The panel members, including Smith and Dunn, know that addicts seldom
fit their stereotype.

"Young people have always used drugs," says Dunn. "But the drugs are
changing, they're highly addictive now and they're killers. Parents
and young people have to realize that addiction (and overdose) can
happen to them."

Smith wants to communicate that no one should be in it alone. "I want
parents to know that there's help out there. There are people in the
community that can help," Smith says. "Schools can't do it alone,
parents can't do it alone, we all have to do it together."

"The people sitting on the panel all care deeply about parents, their
children and this situation we're facing as a community. We're all
here to help. All we need is for the community to reach out and ask us
for our help."

"No one on the panel has all the answers. All of us have a piece of
the puzzle. The people in the audience will have a piece of that
puzzle too."

"It's embarrassing for a young person who ends up with addiction,"
says Dunn. "They don't want to tell anybody and when they don't, they
can't get help."

"If you tell your friends, they can help you," she
says.

"Addiction is a daily battle," says Dunn. "But through awareness and
the support of the ones who care for you, it's one that we can face
together."
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MAP posted-by: Matt