SERVICES SCARCE FOR DRUG-ADDICTED ANGLO YOUTH

Agency Calls For More Rehab Cash. 2 Out Of 3 Quebec Youths Referred
For Help Score High For Attention Disorders

Two-thirds of Quebec youths referred for English-language
drug-rehabilitation services in the past year have been found to
score high or moderately high for problems that indicate attention disorders.

The finding is the result of a new diagnostic software tool designed
in the United States and being used for the first time in Canada by
the Foster Pavilion, the agency that co-ordinates public
English-language rehab services in Quebec.

The new tool is being used by the Foster Pavilion not only to improve
its assessment capabilities, but to help present a stronger case for
increased public funding from the province.

New information this week that suggests higher incidences of social
and health problems stemming from alcohol and drug abuse by Quebec
high-school students has put into question the public sector's
capacity to cope with mounting caseloads.

But resources in the English sector are particularly thin, even after
accounting for population numbers in the francophone and anglophone
communities.

The Foster Pavilion "is in the process of trying to address these
issues with the powers that be," said Morris Kokin, the director of
professional and rehabilitation services.

The Foster Pavilion, based on Cavendish Blvd. in Notre Dame de Grace,
is fully funded by the Quebec Health Department. It is the principal
taxpayer-funded agency that co-ordinates front-line rehab services in English.

On Wednesday, the Institut de la statistique du Quebec said that
while overall recreational alcohol and drug use by high-school
students declined to 30.2 per cent last year, down from 36.4 per cent
in 2004, the rate of hard-core use requiring crisis intervention had
increased to seven per cent from five per cent during the same period.

The same study found 33 per cent of francophones vs. 19 per cent of
non-francophones had used drugs in the past year.

Treatment resources in the English sector are extremely scarce.

For example, the Centre Dollard-Cormier, the agency co-ordinating
French-language rehab services in French on Montreal Island, has a
staff of 25 to 30 youth workers vs. only three for the Foster Pavilion.

Dollard-Cormier has 10 emergency beds for short-term "stabilization"
care, and a short-term residential program lasting four to five weeks.

At the Foster Pavilion, there are no emergency beds and no treatment
options between once-a-week sessions or long-term residential care
lasting four to eight months.

"That's an eternity for some kids," said David Ross, project adviser
with the Foster Pavilion.

Using its new software program, the Foster found that 26 per cent of
kids scored in the high range for attention problems, and 45 per cent
in the moderate range.

"It doesn't mean they have attention deficit disorder," Ross said.

"But it is suggestive of problems related to attention and
concentration, and suggestive of the need for referral to a specialist."

There are many other factors underlying drug abuse. But if you don't
actively test for them, Ross said, then you won't find them.

"If you don't ask, people tend not to tell."

Ross added: "One of the main reasons rehab doesn't get better results
is that assessments made at the front end often aren't picking up
related mental-health and other problems."