STREET YOUTHS LIVE IN HIGH-RISK LANES

Today is my brother's birthday. He is 24 now. I am particularly
grateful for this birthday because I have been reading about the
elevated mortality rate among "street youths," a term that, not long
ago, would have described my brother.

Every homeless teenager in Ottawa has his or her own reasons for being
on the streets. Some are fleeing abusive parents. Some are struggling
to cope with mental illness or addiction. Some are driven by angst,
some by a sense of adventure. Some are just looking for a place to fit
in.

"There's really no service that can be provided to stop youths from
running to the street," says Erica Tomkinson, the director of youth
services at Operation Go Home. "We can talk about education and
prevention until we're blue in the face. But in the end, it's a
youth's choice."

But whatever their backgrounds, youths on the streets face some common
threats: drug addiction, disease and despair. These specific threats
are preventable, or at least treatable.

A study of street youths in Montreal, published recently in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, is getting media
attention all over the world. Very few studies in North America have
followed street youths for an extended period to determine a mortality
rate.

In fact, this study didn't set out to do that, either. The researchers
wanted to study HIV prevalence, but found that several of their
participants died within a few months.

So they began keeping track of the deaths. They checked in on 1,013
homeless youths aged 14 to 25, on a semi-annual basis from 1995 to
2000. These included youths who, out of necessity, were sleeping
outside, in shelters or with friends.

Twenty-six of the 1,013 youths died in that five-year period (and
three more shortly after, although those deaths weren't included in
the study.) That's a mortality rate 11 times that of youths in the
general population.

The main causes of death were suicide and drug overdose. Nine hanged
themselves, two jumped off bridges, and two put themselves in the
paths of oncoming vehicles. Eight died of a drug overdose (some of
those may also have been suicides).

In some ways, street youths in Canada should count their blessings. A
similar study in Boston found that homicide was a leading cause of
death for street youths; that at least does not seem to be a major
threat in Canada.

Mortality figures don't tell of all the dangers young people face on
the street: sexual assault is one example. But they are an indicator
of just how different life and death can be for a young person who has
run to the streets.

It is difficult to tell how applicable the Montreal numbers are for
Ottawa, since no such study has been done here. Ms. Tomkinson says she
doesn't know of any youths familiar to Operation Go Home who have died
from suicide or drug overdose. That doesn't mean deaths haven't
occurred, but it might mean Ottawa is not experiencing the same death
rate as Montreal.

Montreal is a much larger city, so it's not surprising if its
mortality figures are bigger, too. But the threats that led to the
deaths in Montreal are the same threats street youths face here.

The Montreal numbers show that drug injection is a significant threat
to young people living on the street. Besides the threat of overdose,
drug injection is a risk factor for diseases such as hepatitis and
HIV.

The factors that lead to suicide are also present for Ottawa's street
youths. "They're definitely all going through a very rough time," says
Ms. Tomkinson. "They're also just dealing with normal teenage
problems, as well as the problems that come with being on the streets."

There are ways to treat drug addiction and to mitigate the attendant
risks. Councillor Georges Bedard has suggested that Ottawa needs a new
methadone clinic. As long as there are addicts seeking treatment, that
treatment should be available. Needle-exchange sites also have to be
supported and expanded.

There are other ways to help youths living on the street. We can
provide counselling, mediation with family, friendship, food, showers,
medical care, safe harbour, a warm cup of coffee. Operation Go Home
needs money and a new home to continue providing such things. You can
learn how to help by visiting the website at www.operationgohome.ca.

We can't stop youths from running to the streets. But we can do our
best to help them to their next birthdays.