ABSTINENCE NOT THE ONLY WAY OFF DRUGS

An alternative to abstinence is gaining acceptance among people
working with those who struggle with drug addiction.

Kath Hoffman, health director at Central Alberta Safe Harbour Society,
said after 70 years of Alcoholics Anonymous advocating abstinence as
the only way, staff in the "trenches" continue to see some clients end
up back in detox or treatment.

Not all the people who come to Safe Harbour's 20-bed detox program are
ready for total abstinence, she said.

"But they don't tell us that because they know in order to access
treatment or to gain any kind of respect from the community they have
to talk about abstinence," said Hoffman after giving a presentation on
how to support staff and clients at the Alberta Harm Reduction
Conference on Thursday at the Capri Centre.

For example, a client may come to detox to stop smoking crack cocaine,
but intends on smoking marijuana when he gets out because a gradual
detox approach is what makes sense to them.

"Everyone talks and thinks about abstinence. But don't we all manage
our addictions, whatever that may be, every day?" Hoffman said about
socially acceptable addictions like cigarette smoking, shopping,
overeating , gambling, and others.

If staff believe abstinence is the only way to address addiction it
creates shame and fear in clients.

It also causes frustration for staff especially when clients sneak
drugs into detox "to help take the edge off," she said.

But it doesn't take long for staff to be tipped off, either through a
change in the client's behaviour or by another client angry because
someone won't share.

Clients who are caught using drugs at the detox are asked to leave
immediately.

Hoffman said Safe Harbour works hard to be "squeaky clean" but even
federal prisons can't stay clean.

Finding staff who will accept clients as they are can be a challenge
for program administrators during Alberta's economic boom, when
finding and retaining staff is hard.

Safe Harbour has about 50 employees and right now the agency is in
good shape with no empty positions, she said.

Hoffman said it's certainly not the pay cheque that keep people on the
job.

"They have a heart for this kind of work and they have an open mind.
If they don't have an open mind they won't last."