LABRADOR YOUTH RECEIVE TREATMENT AT ONTARIO CENTRE

HAMILTON - Youth from Labrador are no strangers to residential treatment at
the Nimkee Nupigawagan Solvent Abuse Centre near London.

About 30 of the 100 First Nations youth who have received treatment at
Nimkee since it opened in 1997 are from Labrador's remote Innu communities.

For six months, the First Nations youth undergo treatment for solvent
abuse-gas sniffing primarily-which starts with detoxification. From there
it moves on to life skills and personal development, sports and outings,
cultural activities such as fasting and sweat lodge cleansing, and lots of
group sessions on everything from alcohol, drug and solvent abuse education
to personal hygiene.

"We pretty well cover everything," said the centre's team leader, Dave
Trudel. "It's almost similar to an adult treatment centre, but ours is
culturally based and geared for kids."

The centre, on the Muncey Reserve 20 kilometres west of London, is one of
six national solvent abuse treatment centres for First Nations youth
established by Health Canada in recent years to address a growing national
problem.

First Nations youth from the ages of eight to 15 come from across Canada to
stay at the 12-to-15-bed Nimkee centre.

"We're always full," said Trudel, who supervises staff and monitors
residents. The centre is staffed around the clock, with youth-child workers
and a team leader providing treatment and programs throughout the day and
evenings. A teacher provides classroom education.

"They have recreation. We give them experiences like going to hockey games
or Raptors' games, and going to Canada's Wonderland. These are experiences
they've probably never had before. But we also teach them how to deal with
difficulties when they leave. We help them cope when they go back home,
because a lot of these kids, when they leave, go right back into the same
environment," said Trudel, who is also the centre's educator and presenter
on solvent abuse.

"We have follow-up with the kids and a lot of the kids call us after they
leave treatment. Some of the things we hear is that there's nothing to do
there, and they're bored.

"And they have issues at home, and peer pressure (to deal with)."

Some break free of solvent-sniffing after treatment, some return for more
treatment, and some return to their communities and resume their addiction.

Solvent-sniffing is "very addictive," Trudel said, "because it's inhaled
through the mouth. It's the quickest way to get high."

One of every seven who try sniffing for the first time die from what is now
called Sudden Sniffing Death. 'Solvents do permanent damage. It's
irreversible," Trudel said.