DEALING WITH YOUTH AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Lakeridge Health Hosts Inaugural Session For Ontario Addiction Counsellors

WHITBY - For the first time, the Pinewood Centre of Lakeridge Health
held a one-day workshop to train addiction counsellors from outside
the corporation.

Counsellors from across Ontario gathered June 3 in Whitby to learn
about the Dawn Program, a motivational community treatment program
developed by Pinewood 10 years ago to assist youth facing substance abuse.

"When we began sharing this package with others in the province, the
demand was so great that we needed to do this training just to
respond to the demand," Pinewood director Paul McGary said. "Others
were so eager to get their hands on it. Rather than just distribute
it, we wanted to accompany it with the formal training by the
clinicians who were actually doing the work."

The Dawn Program focuses on substance abuse risks, its effect on the
body and mind, dependence and relationships and substance
abuse. Allison Potts and Jeff Gauthier, two senior addiction
counsellors at Pinewood Centre, facilitated the conference.

"I think the most important emphasis is how to work with youth who
aren't sure they want to make a change in their substance use, and
how to approach the information and the youth in a way that's
respectful and will give them a way to make informed choices, and
feel like they can process it out in their own time," Ms. Potts
said. "The fact that we have a program that youth are willing to
come to - even if they're not sure they know what they want to do
about their drug use - gives them an opportunity to make changes,
even if it's small changes."

Mr. Gauthier said the counsellors are taught to be completely
non-judgemental and supportive in their work.

"I think it's important that the youth have an opportunity to get
this information so that when they do make their choices, they're
making informed choices," he said. "We know that most youth will
experiment with some substances through their high school years. To
have the opportunity to do some risk-reduction around that is very important."

Dan Bajorek, a child and family therapist from Muskoka, said he came
to the workshop to get up-to-date information on what works best with teens.

"It's probably a program that's relevant for any one working with
teens," he said. "If kids know that you're interested and attuned to
what their going through, they're going to be opening up more to you."

He called substance abuse a "huge problem," one people are just
cracking the tip of the iceberg on.

"The ideal for me, in my role, is to go back to my community and
really give teens the best information possible, so that when they go
out on a Friday night and they're going to have a party weekend, that
most of them are still around on that Monday morning and are able to
say 'Hey, we made some good choices,'" he said.

For more information, go to www.pinewoodcentre.org.