MORE LOCAL DRUG HELP CENTRES NEEDED

Experts Confirm Current Facilities Constantly Operating At, Or Near,
Maximal Capacity At All Times

On November 17, 2008, Bruce LaRocque of the High Country Recovery
Centre, made a presentation to the city council in Spruce Grove,
requesting funds to assist in constructing an addition recovery centre
to be located somewhere around Parkland County.

In response to this presentation, the Examiner / Reporter was
contacted by Klaus Ewikowski, Executive Director of Carpe Diem
Ministries, another regional addition recovery facility.

"There will probably never be enough facilities to meet the need,
unfortunately," Ewikowski commented.

"I'm not necessarily against another facility going
on.

"The need is huge. Not a week goes by where we get calls from various
individuals, parents, ministries, camps, counseling facilities,
looking for placement. Right now our biggest problem is, the Alberta
Advantage has been a huge disadvantage as far as being able to access
qualifi ed staff, or get adequate financing. At this point, we are
looking at regrouping and bringing in staff before accepting any more
individuals. "

This sentiment was echoed by Elizabeth Ratayevich, a counselor
employed by the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC).

Ratayevich stated, "There's a need [for more services] all over Alberta, not
just in Parkland County: definitely more detox beds. To get into detox,
people in Edmonton wait and they have to call sometimes a few times a day.
That probably applies wherever you are in the province. We defi nitely need
more services, more addictions counselors, and defi nitely more
rehabilitation beds and detox beds."

Ewikowski clarified, "Recovery and treatment are two separate things:
Treatment normally would indicate that there are staff on board that
have signifi cant medical training and are able to administer drugs.
Recovery programs basically deal at a more relational level:
counseling, group discussions, that sort of thing, with no, or very
little, outside psychiatrists or medical personnel involved. So the
dollars and cents of having a treatment facility versus a recovery
facility are night and day as well.

"Parents have told us that kids are getting into drugs earlier and
earlier, and that they would support a facility for youth. Right now
adult men are the most serviced of any of the demographics that are
dealing with addictions in Western Canada. For example, there's over
400 beds for men and fewer than 50 beds for women. To the best of my
knowledge there's between 24 and 50 beds for youth."

This struck to the heart of LaRocque's argument for the proposed High
Country facility, since it is to serve exclusively adult men.

Yet, as LaRocque pointed out in a separate interview, "The occupancy
rate at the long-term recovery centres, which is what we want to
build, those that I contacted, is one that I was working for in
Edmonton, the occupancy rate was, for adult men, between 87 and 94%
every year, and most of the time with a wait list. And around
Christmas and early January, a longer wait list. So that tells us that
there's still a need for it. The second factor, and it's simply a
dollar one, is if you open up a centre strictly for youth, you
wouldn't fi ll it. People simply wouldn't pay for it. And as far as
the women part, I will absolutely address that there needs to be
facilities for women and youth, unfortunately when it comes to getting
it paid for your adult male is still your best bet."

While the desirability of recovering addicts getting treatment in a
facility away from the place they live was a reality admitted by
LaRocque in his presentation to Spruce council, Ewikowski was
particularly passionate on the subject.

"You need to remove individuals from their sphere of infl uence and
out of their peer group in order to effect recovery," he said.

"So that almost goes without saying. You would very rarely have
success with local individuals in your facility."

Ewikowski acknowledged there are some benefi ts to locals in
communities with treatment and/or recovery facilities: "Part of it
would be on a small scale, offering employment to locals."

Yet, "within a 50-100km radius of where your facility is, you will not
be drawing individuals from that area and having a successful
treatment. Cases in point are the number of facilities running
programs in Edmonton. Individuals going into them, and then all they
have to do is go out the back door and they're right back in harm's
way."

Most addicts, Ewikowski added, don't have the cash for expensive
treatment and recovery programs.

"The most that somebody coming into recovery would have access to
would be if they're on AISH (Assured Income for the Severely
Handicapped), and that's only around $1,100 dollars a month," he said.

"More often than not, people on supplement or income supplement would
only have about $460 to $800 a month coming in."

Organizations like Ewikowski's don't get government funding:
"basicaly, 100% of our resources have been by donation. The majority
of that, about 55%, has been on the larger end of corporate, and
individual donations make up the rest. To date, we have received no
government funding at all.

"What we would love to have happen, as far as our own organization is
concerned, is we would like to be part of the options available to
people if there is government funding being brought forward for the
per diem rate. At this time, we are not in the mix, although higher
levels of government give us a pat on the back, they don't come across
with the day-to-day operations funding for us."

What does AADAC offer Albertans? Elizabeth Ratayevich, an employee of
the organizations's Stony Plain offi ce, explained that AADAC offers
"a bit of prevention (for example by providing displays to schools),
and information: if someone calls us, we provide information and
referral over the phone; we also provide information in the form of
brochures or printouts." 65% of what Ratayevich does, she said, is
individual counseling and referral to community agencies and AADAC
services in Parkland County, Edmonton, and all over Alberta.

"Services are available to anybody, Ratayevich continued. "Right now
I'm booking for next week. A person doesn't have to wait very long for
an appointment. They can get in within fi ve to seven days to see
somebody. When it comes to treatment programs, rehab or a detox
centre, that's a bit more tricky. All over Alberta, waiting periods
for an actual treatment centre would be about three to four weeks,
sometimes longer than that. So the treatment program itself would take
longer to access, but in terms of connecting with somebody for that
support, or an individual session, that doesn't take very long. It's
pretty accessible to anybody.

"I'd say everybody has the same access to services. In certain
situations, where someone would be going up north to a business and
industry clinic and a corporation is paying the cost, that person
would probably get service in a couple of weeks. But for your average
Albertans, whether it's a youth or an adult, I'd say it's about four
weeks to get into a residential treatment program.

Of course, the lower the level of care required, the shorter the wait.
Ratayevich explained: "We do have other things that are available for
people, and one of those would be outpatient treatment in Edmonton,
where I just registered someone today and he is starting the program
on Monday. So, again, the waiting period isn't very, very long. I
would say that specifi cally for the residential programs people have
to wait, but if someone wants to come to see me, I can provide the
support, the information, and we can kind of start the treatment for
that person right away. It would basically mean developing an
individualized plan, depending on their situation: work hours,
availability, how they're doing emotionally and mentally. We would
design a specifi c plan and set up some goals, and we can start
working on that pretty quickly.

"Most of the people I refer for programming go to Edmonton,"
Ratayevich admitted.

As for Mr. LaRocque, he's still waiting to hear back from the councils
of Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County, and Sturgeon County.
"We're looking at seven different administrations, at different
levels, to pitch in," he continued, "the big two being the province of
Alberta and the federal government.

"We're a registered charity and non-profit, which many places are.
This compels us to go out after the dollar. The fact remains that to
get a recovery centre of this magnitude built and operating you're
looking at probably three to four million dollars by the time the land
is purchased, the recovery centre is built, the residence is built for
the caretakers and the shop is built for the work that we have to do
at the centre. Those dollars just don't exist in the private sector.
That's why we have to go to various levels of government for piecemeal
funding."