DRUG ADDICTS WAIT FAR TOO LONG FOR COUNSELLING, SUPPORT IN REGION

ISSUE: Young citizens battling substance abuse have a nine or 10-week
wait to get help they need in York Region.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happens if
someone who needs counselling and support for drug or alcohol
addiction has to wait 12 weeks to get it.

Yet that's what is happening in York Region.

More disturbing is that our young citizens who are battling substance
abuse have a nine or 10-week wait to get the help they need. This, as
Addiction Services for York Region executive director John O'Mara
points out, is unacceptable because "youth need someone the next day".

Not providing swift access to the help some folks in our region
desperately need can have a profoundly devastating impact not only on
them, but also on their families, friends and even their employers.

According to a 2002 report from the Canadian Centre on Substance
Abuse, addictions cost Canadians nearly $40 billion a year, including
$9 billion in direct health care costs.

Even though a significant portion of that sum is related to smoking,
we all have an enormous stake in getting people the help they need to
stop using drugs and alcohol.

And yet in York Region, it seems these people are being set up to fail.

In addition to long waiting lists, there are access problems. York's
Addiction Services has offices in Markham, Aurora and Georgina. The
Vitanova Foundation is in Woodbridge. The agencies say they need
satellite offices to bring services closer to those who need them.

More importantly, if a person needs residential treatment, they can't
get it in York Region. The closest thing even remotely resembling
treatment here is a temporary shelter at Vitanova -- which has a
three-month waiting list.

People needing residential treatment could be shipped anywhere in the
province, effectively removing them from a network of family and
community support.

All these factors do nothing to boost a vulnerable person who has
made the brave and difficult decision to clean up his or her life.

The agencies that provide the services are the first to point out the
problem. They're doing the best they can.

As with other pressing needs in York Region, the problem seems to lie
with inadequate funding from upper-tier governments that still seem
to think York Region is small-town Ontario.

York Region's two addiction treatment centres, for example, receive
$1.46 million from the Ministry of Health to serve 800,000-plus
people. Contrast that with Hamilton, which has a population of
500,000 people, but has six centres and gets $4.11 million.

It's time for the province to acknowledge we aren't some suburban
dreamland that only needs token support for its social needs.

We think Queen's Park should put its money where its mouth is and
give our local agencies the resources they need to help our
community's most vulnerable citizens be all they can be.

BOTTOM LINE: Queen's Park should put its money where its mouth is and
give local agencies resources they need to help the community's most
vulnerable citizens.