ABORIGINAL ADDICTS SHUFFLED IN FEDERAL PLAN

Aboriginal drug addicts living off-reserve in Alberta are going to have a
tough time getting sober, because the federal government wants to send them
back to remote reserves to seek help.

Lloydminster Meridian Booster - Aboriginal drug addicts living off-reserve
in Alberta are going to have a tough time getting sober, because the
federal government wants to send them back to remote reserves to seek help.

The controversial move, which Health Canada officials say is "strengthening
the referral system," means aboriginals will have to go through an
interview process to determine where they should go for treatment. In
laymen's terms, it means addicts go where the government tells them to if
they want help. The federal government will no longer pay Alberta's seven
provincial centres to treat aboriginal addicts. It also means - in Edmonton
for example - that addicts who could get to the Poundmaker Lodge Treatment
Centre, on the edge of the city in 20 minutes could be forced to go to
reserves hundreds of kilometres away. To boot, Poundmaker's clients are 90
per cent aboriginal, so the $15 per day per client from Health Canada is a
large part of their income. That cut could damage the services that
treatment centres provide.

Craig Featherstone, executive director of the Slim Thorpe Recovery Centre
in Lloydminster, said the move is unfair to addicts.

"They (the feds) only give us about $15 per day under the NNADAP (National
Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program)," he said. "It's a small amount in
any event, but the issue is pretty controversial. We aren't turning people
away though."

According to Featherstone, Health Canada will still pay to treat native
addicts on a federally-funded bed, but only if they go to a centre on a
reserve.

"It's really unfair, and there are groups that aren't done lobbying yet,"
he said. "We've come to the point where people will come to our program to
detox, NNADAP will say 'no, go to another centre,' and we say to the client
'don't worry about it, stay and let us figure it out.' It seems like they
changed the system for no reason."

However, Health Canada officials believe the program will be beneficial to
native addicts, and said they are going to continue to fund provincial centres.

"If a native person is looking for treatment, they have to go through our
referral process first, and we'll decide which facility is best for them,"
said Tamara Magnan, Health Canada's regional communications director in
Edmonton. "Each case is different, so we look at the individuality of each
one of those cases. We look at the type of addiction to determine which
facility is best for them. It's a very simple process."

Magnan said counselling is a basic step in treating anyone who is addicted
to drugs or alcohol. She said most people seeking help do not arbitrarily
decide to get help.

"Part of the process is to add counselling to the initial assessment," she
said. "Addictions are mental, so convincing someone to get help is not simple."

Magnan also said there are 16 beds available across Alberta, but in fact
many centres have lengthy waiting lists.

More than half of Alberta's aboriginal population does not live on a reserve.