TRIAGE CARE FOR METH USERS WOULD BENEFIT ALL

Only the most sympathetic among us can find much compassion for drug
addicts. So when you read the front-page story today about plans to build
a $750,000 crisis emergency center for methampheta-mine users, you might
cringe.

Why should you pay to buy and operate the facility?

Because it would benefit you as well as the users.

Most directly it would keep disruptive, possibly violent methamphetamine
users out of already overcrowded emergency rooms and away from you and your
kids when you're awaiting treatment.

Emergency rooms aren't designed to handle meth users. The user has to come
down from their drug high before doctors can even evaluate whether they
need medical treatment. Usually they don't.

The jail isn't equipped for them, either. Besides, it's usually full. So
the only place police and aid crews can drop users is at the emergency room.

Mental health clinics won't take them because they're intoxicated and
they're too violent to be placed in a detoxification area.

So meth users are dropped at the emergency room and eventually released
back to the streets, no better off for the experience. Many become repeat
customers to emergency rooms because nothing is being done to change their
behavior.

Twenty users have been identified who use the emergency room four or more
times in six months. One, who has since died, made 44 visits in one year,
costing the hospital $200,000.

In the long run, a crisis emergency center would save some of that money.
Working independently, hospitals, police and mental health clinics are
spinning their wheels and wasting public funds. Their methods don't result
in successful treatment. They also don't get dangerous users off the
street, jeopardizing public safety

A crisis emergency center would combine the medical, mental-health and
chemical dependency treatments needed to address all of the user's problems
and help them break out of their destructive habits. Once users' basic
needs are met, they become more stable.

The fewer patients, the smaller the cost. Plus, services in emergency
rooms are among the most expensive to provide, surpassing $1,000 per
patient visit.

What appears at first glance to be a big waste of money is actually an
innovative way to finally attack a problem that long ago got out of control
and continues to escalate. The local group of caregivers who proposed a
crisis emergency center should be commended and supported.

We can't continue to attack methamphetamine abuse the way we have in the
past. Users will become a increasing burden on our police, fire department
medics and hospitals until we find a way to reduce the number of users.

EDITORIAL BOARD Michael A. Levi Publisher and President Scott Ware Editor
Jim Campbell Opinion Editor Tamara Peterson Copy Editor Tom Larsen
Operations Director Kerry Breen Community Member Bonnie Henne Community
Member Heidi Hottinger Community Member Tom Springer Community Member Jim
Sund Community Member