MCDONALD MALIGNS CROSSROADS

To the editor:

Re: John McDonald's column, Feb. 8, headlined: Cream of the Rehab Crop Make
Stats Look Good.

Addiction is a complex, chronic, progressive, physical, mental and
spiritual condition, with a high relapse rate, and experience bears out
that release from its grip requires total abstinence at the onset of treatment.

Society will not bear the cost of providing holding facilities for those
addicted to alcohol and drugs, so they can eventually decide to achieve the
necessary clean time to permit treatment to take hold and become a new way
of life.

I take strong exception to the word "purports to treat drug and alcohol
addiction" at Crossroads Treatment Centre. Crossroads has a high reputation
in the addiction treatment field, and as far as I know does not accumulate
or issue any statistics, as is suggested in McDonald's article.

Over the years, John McDonald has repeatedly maligned Crossroads, giving
the impression that this institution is not doing a satisfactory job in the
field of addiction rehabilitation. I do not believe that he has the
qualifications to pass judgment on how well Crossroads does its job.
Crossroads does not attempt to claim any miraculous "stats" to prove its
effectiveness.

The ideal system for rehabilitation would be direct entry to Crossroads
from any detox facility, not only its own. To suggest that there is a
selection committee "to cream" before entry to the active treatment centre
next door is misinformation and downright libelous.

Referrals to rehabilitation come from physicians, addictions councillors,
government agencies and the courts. There is no pruning of the candidates
before entry; only that they conform to the total abstinence rule.

Without abstinence from the addicting substance, no recovery can be
initiated, or attempted.

To suggest that continued use of any addictive substance while in treatment
should be permitted is ludicrous; that is why, not only Crossroads, but
every other reputable treatment centre, will not tolerate relapse while in
treatment.

None are "thrown out." Anyone who has been asked to leave because of
relapse, can be readmitted if compliance to abstinence is assured.

Crossroads deals with many people with severe addictive problems, its stats
only indicate those who have completed the 28-day rehabilitative program,
and does not profess to claim any cures. The detox and the rehab processes
are only two phases of the road to recovery from the addictive condition.
Aftercare programs, participation in mutual help groups and lifestyle
changes are essential in the prevention of relapse into alcohol and drug use.

In the future, I would hope that the Capital News will adopt a more
unbiased, more investigative and honest approach when making comments about
Crossroads Treatment Centre.

This facility does an excellent job of returning addicted persons back into
the main stream of society.

Paul W. Rousseau, M.D., Kelowna