Heal thyself— addictions treatment gets tough-love makeover

Baffin board set to role out new plan for addictions treatment and counselling.

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

SEAN MCKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

OTTAWA — Addiction workers for every community, “reality therapy” for addicts, a treatment and training centre in Apex and a host of new services — welcome to the future of drug and alcohol treatment in the Baffin region

Two months after taking over canceling funding for community-based organizations such as the Upassuraakut counselling service and the Inusiqsiurvik treatment centre, the Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board says it has more clients seeking drug and alcohol treatment than ever before.

They also say they have a plan to make the system work better.

“This is an exciting time for us,” says Doug Sage, the Baffin board’s director of community services. “We’ve been able to re-profile money that we would have spent on those agreements and spend it on things like training and hiring more addiction counsellors.”

Almost $750,000 was earmarked in the board’s budget for funding agreements. By canceling those agreements in December, Sage says the board “re-profiled” about $150,000.

Sage says the agreements tied the board’s hands and committed it to rental contracts with municipalities that just didn’t make sense.

“At one time, the addictions counsellor was in a different office from the social worker,” says Mike Linn, manager of the addictions program. Now counsellors and social workers operate out of the same offices, co-ordinating their work and saving on rent.

“We don’t need two phones and two faxes and two offices,” Sage says.

However, the move wasn’t just about money, it was also about making services available where they weren’t before, Sage adds.

More communities

Communities such as Kimmirut, Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay have never had money for a counselor and now the board is hiring counselors for those communities, he says.

The decision to overhaul the alcohol and drug rehabilitation system came because few people were using it. At this time last year there were perhaps 10 people seeking help with addictions in Iqaluit, Sage says.

That number has more than doubled since the board took control, he says. He attributes the growth to new services being offered.

Suicide intervention, family counseling, school presentations and visits to young offenders and Baffin Correction Centre inmates have been added to counselors’ duties.

“Reality therapy”

But another key feature is the introduction of “Reality Therapy” as a philosophy for addiction treatment. Sage says Reality Therapy puts the onus on addicts for healing. He says this allows those receiving treatment to keep their self-respect and helps heal the environment around the addict as well.

“It’s also very culturally acceptable to the Inuit community. Our counselors tell us they like it.”

Sage also says work between social services and corrections staff will be co-ordinated. Three training sessions have already been conducted with both addictions counselors and corrections staff taking part.

Addictions counselors have also begun to visit young offenders and inmates at the Baffin Correction Centre.

But the changeover has not been without problems. When the board canceled its funding agreements some workers at the Inusiqsiurvik treatment centre were laid off, even though the board says it meant to keep the workers on.

“There was a breakdown in communication,” said BRHSSB chairman Dennis Patterson, who blamed a language barrier for the mix-up. The two workers were offered their jobs back on what Patterson calls a “casual or temporary basis,” but the workers declined.

Sage says there was no cessation in service for clients, but he says the mandatory two-week unpaid leave that government workers take at Christmas meant only a skeleton staff was running the healing centre in Iqaluit. He says staffing levels in Iqaluit are now back to normal.

By late April the treatment centre in Apex should be up and running again and doing double duty as a training centre for new addiction counselors.

“For me the real test is this time next year and then the year after that. This is an ongoing process,” says Sage.

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