NURSES NEED VOLUNTARY ADDICTION TREATMENT PROGRAM, INQUEST TOLD

WOODSTOCK - Nurses need a voluntary substance abuse treatment program they
can attend without worrying about losing their jobs, an inquest jury was
told yesterday.

There's already a program in place for doctors and one for nurses would be
huge benefit for the entire profession, said two doctors who work with
health professionals facing addiction problems.

However, Drs. Graeme Cunningham and Michael Kaufmann warned that ordering
health practitioners to report any and every doctor or nurse who has a drug
addiction could send the problem "underground."

Jurors in the Tammy Moore-Bruce Reid inquest heard yesterday that there
used to be a program for nurses very similar to the Physicians' Help
Program (PHP), but that the program isn't offered any more despite a
definite need for it.

"Absolutely yes," Cunningham, director of Homewood Health Centre, told the
jury yesterday about the need. "And there always will be."

Moore, a nurse, and her boyfriend Reid died of drug overdoses in February,
2001. The inquest was set up to look at the circumstances surrounding the
death and provide recommendations.

The doctor's program is funded by the Ontario Medical Association, which
means it's paid for by the physicians themselves. The OMA is a separate
entity from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the
organization that regulates doctors across the province.

Because of this autonomy, doctors are much more comfortable when entering
the program, according to Kaufmann, director of the PHP.

"We go on a recovery journey with the doctor," Kaufmann said.

But nurses don't have such an autonomous body. Currently the College of
Nurses of Ontario is the only association that all nurses in the province
belong to, but it's also the regulatory body - which makes it responsible
for accreditation and discipline.

Cunningham said the College of Nurses could administer a program like the
PHP, but, "is it the appropriate body to run it...my opinion is no."

Kaufmann said, in theory, it would be feasible for nurses sign up for the
program.

While Kaufmann said about 70 per cent of those doctors who agree to be
monitored after their treatment don't touch drugs again.

Still there are improvements that could be made. Although the PHP is a
completely voluntary program, he said being able to tell a doctor or nurse
that the college will be notified - which could lead to disciplinary action
- - if they don't take the program could help with the decision.

"When that is one of the outcomes at the end of the line, it makes it that
much more powerful," Kaufmann said. "When any doctor I know is presented
with that choice, he always choses treatment."

Kaufmann said that if such an "option" had been given to Tammy Moore when
she was in treatment in Guelph, she might have stayed instead of checking
out after only 10 days.

However, Kaufmann was strongly against reporting each and every instance of
substance abuse amongst health professionals.

"It would be an enormous barrier coming into treatment if they know they're
going to be reported," he said, adding that about half of those who enter
his program enter of their own freewill. The rest are usually referred and
coerced by others.

"We have to maximize doctor intake," he added, "not drive them away or
underground.

"If we have an individual following the process and doing well in the
process, what's the benefit of involving the regulatory body?"

While Kaufmann said he would like to see a more lenient attitude towards
mandatory reporting, Cunningham was strongly against it.

"Mandatory reporting would not protect the public at all," he said.

Instead, doctors and nurses would put off attending the program for as long
as possible, or they wouldn't attend at all.

"It would drive it underground," Cunningham said.

The jury will now come up with recommendations based on the evidence it has
made.