ADDICTION SERVICES PROGRAM TARGETS YOUTH

In a landmark effort to curb drug use in the community, the City of
Merritt will play host to a new short-term addiction treatment
service for youth battling drug and alcohol addictions.

Last week, Interior Health awarded Axis Family Resources Ltd. of
Kamloops with the contract to provide "the mobile youth addictions
and housing service" to the communities of Chase, Clearwater,
Barriere, Lillooet, 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Kamloops and Merritt.

Comprised of a housing component and therapeutic services component,
the program will be tailored to the individual dynamic of each
community and will compliment existing programs.

"This program brings youth addictions services closer to the
communities where they are needed," Health Minister George Abbott
said in a release. "By linking referral agencies such as Interior
Health and Ministry of Children and Family Development, this mobile
service will help address addiction issues among our youth - be it
crystal meth or alcohol."

The therapeutic services component will begin in Merritt Sept. 11 and
run for five weeks through the Cross Roads Community Church. Services
will be available most days for clients up to 25 years of age. Two
short-stay beds are still required.

Rick Gibson, Axis CEO and President, says it is the dynamic and
flexible nature of the program that makes it unique to other drug and
alcohol services. The Axis program allows the client to take an
active role in their rehabilitation, he said.

"We look for those windows of opportunities to engage youth and you
don't always get those in the sterile nine to five structured
environment," he said. "Treatment has to be flexible, creative and innovative."

While Merritt is certainly not the only community in the province
with a drug problem, Gibson said due to its proximity to bigger
centres, it has had a tendency to be underserved. In the past,
clients have had to travel to the bigger centres such as Kamloops or
Williams Lake to get treatment.

Mike McCormick, an alcohol and drug counsellor with the Lower Nicola
Band, said the new program should solve this.

"Working with people with addiction issues, what you want to do is
make it as convenient as possible for them," he said. "Because for
many of them, the lack of resources for getting to and from these
different locations can be quite a burden. This makes it a little
more convenient for them."

Although optimistic of the positive impact the program should have on
the community, McCormick said it is still too early to know what its
long-term effects will be.

"Potentially, I think it could be a big plus," he said. "But the
ultimate way to look at the situation would be to evaluate it after
the program is completed. [Its success] still remains to be determined."

Axis is in the process of identifying family care homes that can
function as safe houses for addictions clients in the community. If
anyone is interested contact Axis at (250) 851-2947.