NAVAJO HEALTH OFFICIALS TREAT METH

FARMINGTON - The Navajo Nation Department of Behavioral Health will soon
add rehabilitation counseling for methamphetamine addicts to its range of
programs, following a two-day seminar in Farmington.

Raymond Keeswood, prevention specialist for the Shiprock Outpatient
Treatment Center, said the department has focused on education and use
prevention since 2003, when "five or six kids" died in Tuba City, Ariz., as
a result of meth.

However, the department's counselors are now seeing a trend where clients
who have become addicted to meth are coming in for rehabilitation services.
Keeswood noted the counselors currently specialize in alcohol and marijuana
addiction rehabilitation programs, but have not been trained to assist meth
addicts.

"The use of meth has also been prevalent among our clients. [Counselors]
are having a hard time with it," Keeswood said, adding rehabilitation
services are needed on the Nation because of increased use of meth among
Navajos.

"The jail system works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't," he said.

The seminar conducted Thursday and Friday at the Courtyard by Marriott in
Farmington was designed to address that problem.

Sam Minsky of the Matrix Institute of Los Angeles conducted several
sessions for the more than 30 employees of the Shiprock office of the
Department of Behavioral Health that attended the conference.

The seminar covered three different Matrix Models, highlighting triggers,
cravings, brain models and addiction, conditional and obsessive thinking,
motivational interviewing, stages of recovery and several other key concepts.

The final segment of the seminar involved role-playing, with the counselors
acting as recovering meth addicts and Minsky playing the part of the
therapist conducting a group session.

"They just really begin to look at what their clients might be needing.
It's like filling that gap," Keeswood said.

The group session stressed understanding of the emotions clients may go
through and actions they might take during therapy sessions and the
rehabilitation process.

During the role-playing exercise, the "patients" talked out of turn, were
distracting, told the therapist they were mad at him and purposely said
trigger words that might remind others of their addictions.

All of the scenarios are things that are common in real group therapy and
rehabilitation sessions. By acting out the worst scenarios, including a
client feeling like they didn't belong, the counselors tested Minsky and
were able to see how to handle such a case.

Minsky stressed to the audience that the most important part of a group
therapy session was to maintain a safe and controllable environment so the
patients could feel as comfortable as possible when discussing their
addiction and recovery.

According to Keeswood, a key concept in the sessions and in the Matrix
Model is "stop thought," or the process of replacing thoughts of using meth
with other activities, distractions or emotions.

"Stop thought" eventually leads the user to consider the consequences when
they crave meth, and replace that craving with one for something else other
than the drug.

Keeswood and Rita Cantsee, program supervisor for Shiprock Outpatient
Treatment Center, both said the new model, complete with the 16-week
therapy and counseling sessions, will allow the Department of Behavioral
Health to attack the growing meth problems from both ends.

The department will continue to push education and prevention while adding
the new focus on rehabilitation to help those who have already begun to use
meth.

To that end, a ground breaking ceremony for a new 72-bed residential
treatment facility was also announced Friday. The ceremony will take place
Sept. 30, with the center opening in 2007.

The treatment facility will be located behind Indian health Services in the
old hospital building.