HIGH TIME ADDICTION SERVICES MADE PUBLICLY ACCOUNTABLE

It's no news that health care in B.C. is undergoing a radical change.
Believe it or not, the move towards a sustainable health care system began
under the former NDP provincial government with the Liberals continuing and
accelerating that trend.

Today's health authorities are demanding evidence that they are getting the
best bang for their buck, be it in acute care, mental health or long-term care.

As they should. The days when there was enough government money to run a
wasteful system are long since over, if they ever really were here.

That same principle is now being applied to addiction services. Long the
orphan of the social services, help for drug addicts and alcoholics has
been bounced around from one government ministry to the next. It was once
the responsibility of Human Resources, then ended up with the Ministry for
Children and Families.

When the Liberals were elected the decision was made to put addictions
services where it really belongs--under the auspices of the Ministry of Health.

Addiction has long been considered by government and many elements of
society as a moral or character flaw, not a medical problem.

This has lead to a model of treating addiction with abstinence and
religion-based programs where non-profit societies would receive government
cash essentially to preach at addicts. Any relapse was usually dealt with
by removing the offender from the program. Essentially, it punished the
patient for displaying the symptoms of their disease, kind of like denying
a cancer patient chemotherapy when more tumors appear on their x-rays.

By tagging addiction as a moral failure, society has also branded those who
suffer from it as somehow lacking. No wonder addicts want anonymity when
they finally confront their problem.

But that same anonymity has become a crutch for the non-profit addictions
industry that has sprung up. When demands are made for proof that what they
are doing is working, they hold up anonymity like a cross in front of a
vampire.

Now there are plenty that will argue against the concept of addiction being
a disease, but there is no question that addiction and its side effects
regularly put people into the hospital so the argument is moot.

The Interior Health Authority is hiring an addiction manager to review the
contracts of all service providers. It's looking for results.

Any non-profit society that tries to hide behind anonymity will find its
funding drying up faster than a wheatfield in southern Alberta. That
doesn't mean that addicts will be thrust into the limelight to be treated.
Rather, they will be involved in the whole process including a critique of
what works and what doesn't. It's about time.