YOUTH WORKER SAYS MANDATORY DRUG TREATMENT MISGUIDED

A Calgary social worker who works with drug-addicted youth says she's
concerned about new provincial legislation that will allow parents to ask
the courts to lock up their teenagers at a detox centre.

The legislation, called the Protection of Children Abusing Drugs Act
(PCHAD), will take effect on July 1, 2006. Under the Act, a parent or
guardian can apply to the courts to have their drug-addicted teenager
forcibly confined at a detox centre for five days. A provincial court judge
has to be satisfied the teenager is addicted to drugs before the order is
given.

Stasha Huntingford, a youth worker at Raido House, which houses homeless
youth, says she's concerned that locking teenagers up for mandatory
treatment might worsen their drug problem.

"It's a really politically charged bill and, of course, as a youth worker I
have to support the provincial legislation. But I wish that Alberta based
their legislation more on what we know about best practices, about
evidence-based social work," says Huntingford. "There's strong evidence
that says (mandatory treatment) makes it worse."

She says some teenagers may just be "experimenting" with drugs and if
they're forced into treatment "that's when they tend to rebel and do a
bunch of other drugs that they might not have tried without mandated drug
treatment."

"People need to want to change to change. You can't force people to
change," she says.

Huntingford also has concerns about the short length of the mandatory detox
because she says detox takes at least 10 days for crack cocaine and even
longer for crystal meth.

"They're likely to overdose if they're half detoxed because the chemicals
only have just gone from the body, but if you do the same amount you did
five days ago, you might die. That is a concern for me," she says.

She adds that she'd prefer to see more resources put into voluntary drug
treatment programs for teenagers who have chosen to get help -- there are
currently four provincially funded detox beds and 12 residential treatment
bed for youth in Calgary -- and she's had some clients who have had to wait
three months to get help.

"I personally think that there is enough young people in Calgary who want
to quit and may be more limited by treatment options, rather than by the
willingness to quit," she says.

Huntingford is concerned that teenagers who are voluntarily seeking help
will be bumped out of beds by teenagers mandated to get help through PCHAD.

Darlene Gartner, AADAC senior manager of PCHAD, says the legislation was
driven by parents who wanted more options to get help for their kids, and
AADAC will spend the first two years closely monitoring the program in
order to gauge its success. She says they will follow teenagers who have
gone through the five-day detox to see what the outcome is.

"We're going to ask kids themselves what they think and get some guidance
from them," she says. "In two years we'll have a far better knowledge of
what's working and is not."

AAADAC will be increasing the number of voluntary detox beds by two this
year and will also be adding two more residential treatment beds. Gartner
says there will also be five or six detox beds specifically dedicated to
the PCHAD program in place by this summer. AADAC is also increasing the
number of counsellors across the province.