METHADONE CENTRE SET TO OPEN IN SAULT

Treatment effective for some struggling with opioid dependence

Local News - A pilot program to provide methadone treatment in Sault Ste.
Marie and Algoma District has been established after five years of planning
and lobbying.

The clinic is slated to begin operations Oct. 20 from the Algoma Health
Unit's Community Alcohol/Drug Assessment Program at 63 East St.

In the wake of a spate of apparent morphine-related deaths in the Sault
over an 18- to 24-month period from 1999 to 2001, a committee was struck by
the Sault Ste. Marie office of the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health to
work with a host of partners to bring a local clinic to fruition.

Mike O'Shea, systems planning consultant with the Sault centre, spearheaded
the local effort.

"The treatment is not a panacea," O'Shea said, but added it has proven to
be effective for some individuals struggling with opioid dependence.

O'Shea said diverting opioid addicts to methadone maintenance can
significantly reduce other health-related costs.

Need for a local program -- similar clinics already exist in every other
major Northern Ontario centre -- is dire, O'Shea said.

"We've had a number of people calling and crying . . . family members who
want to get help for their sons or daughters, mothers or fathers," O'Shea
said Thursday.

"It's been heartbreaking.

"We have a number of people who have really been suffering and waiting for
the program to be established. We try to move as quickly as we can."

Funding comes from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and will be
administered via the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

The college has contracted Dr. Vera Tarman, a Toronto physician and expert
in methadone treatment, to establish and administer the service in
conjunction with AHU.

The province earmarked $75,000 to help set up programs in under-serviced
areas. Physicians will bill OHIP for some services and locally AHU will
provide a number of in-kind services, including office space.

The idea is for clinics to eventually become self-sustaining, says Wade
Hillier, the college's manager of government programs.

"There will be at least at the end of the day no cheque cut that says Sault
Ste. Marie will get $37,000 of this," he said Thursday from Toronto.

"It will just sort of depend on what comes about. And that is why we didn't
want to break it up into even pots of money."

O'Shea said one of Tarman's prime roles -- she's slated to be in the Sault
one day per week -- will be to educate emergency staff, health-care workers
in the community and local medical officials to carry on the program.

It will be assessed after six months.

Doctors must be certified to administer treatment and the region's shortage
of medical expertise, especially physicians, means the local project, and
all regional clinics, operate on thin ice, O'Shea said.

The Timmins program is administered by a Chapleau doctor who regularly
commutes some 200 kilometres.

"The truth is because there's only one physician in each of the communities
providing this, it's kind of like a house of cards," he added. "If that
physician gets ill or quits, for instance, Sudbury would be in a crisis.
The same in North Bay.

"Because a client is tied to the medication, a physician has to be
available to them."

Two local doctors are certified, but work out of the Northern Treatment
Centre to provide treatment to incarcerated individuals already receiving
methadone.

Prospective patients will be assessed by a physician using many benchmarks,
including health, medication use and attitude.

"Are they really serious about doing this? Have they tried this in the
past?" O'Shea said.

Clients --O'Shea said he doubts there will be a shortage -- don't receive
medication at the clinic, but from a pharmacist, who will witness the
client actually taking it.

"Part of the reason for this is we don't want anybody abusing anything," he
added.

Weekly urine tests will also be carried out.

"It's pretty intense in terms of keeping an eye on these folks," O'Shea said.

Sault pharmacist Jon MacDonald, who served on the committee to launch the
clinic, will dispense the medication.

No health care workers were brought on board exclusively for the project.

"In the future we'd love to hire a nurse practitioner to help with primary
care as well because often these clients have issues around hepatitis and
other health-related problems . . . . We just don't have the dollars to do
that.

"Our primary goal was to get the clinic established so we could get the
people what they need."

Individuals who believe they could benefit from this treatment or want
further information may call Elizabeth Larocque at the Community
Alcohol/Drug Assessment Program at 759-1844.