DETOX DOCTOR'S GIFT TO ILLAWARRA

It's one of the great journalistic mantras - people love reading about
people.

With that in mind, I knew I was at serious risk of overdosing on great
people stories after just an hour at the Rapid Detox Centre in the
south-western Sydney suburb of Liverpool on Monday.

Everywhere I looked there were former junkies willing to go on record with
the details of how the treatment saved their lives.

They were dying to tell their stories. Before Naltrexone, they were just
dying.

Sam Barghsoom's brother Wally and his wife were going to lose their children
to the Community Services Department.

The department gave them one last chance to clean up their acts. They had
one last shot at turning their lives around.

A department staffer witnessed their treatment at the centre and now the
family is intact and unthreatened.

``It has been a miracle,'' Sam said. He spoke for his brother because Wally
was at work, supervising a team of seven cleaners.

Michelle Farmer grins from ear to ear as she speaks about last week's birth
of her second child, a girl.

Michelle literally went straight from scoring in Cabramatta to the detox
centre. Her victory over an all-consuming addiction was documented by a
women's magazine.

Now one Illawarra addict has a chance at a new life.

The centre's medical director Dr Siva Navaratnam wants to detoxify and
provide counselling for an addict nominated by The Illawarra Mercury.

The initial treatment is quick and completely painless. In three hours
addicts are detoxified with the heroin-blocking agent Naltrexone.

For six months there is a daily dose of Naltrexone, and weekly counselling
and urine tests.

It sounds simple. But participants still need drive and determination.

Naltrexone stops the physical cravings, but to succeed a patient needs to
get his or her head sorted out too.

According to Dr Navaratnam 81.6 per cent of his patients are still clean a
year after the initial treatment.

He insists that patients have support - preferably from their families, but
if not, from their church, community, or friends.

The program is centred on group support. No-one goes it alone.

Dr Navaratnam has treated the homeless, the superficially successful, the
rich and the poor.

So if you are an addict, or someone you love is an addict, this could be the
chance you have been seeking.

Just write to me at The Mercury explaining how you or someone you know would
benefit from this treatment.

Please get your letters in by Friday, May 28.