Chris Puglia
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 08/02) - Melvin Laroque can't understand a recommendation that came from Vawn Ruthven's coroner's inquest, which wrapped up last week.

Recommendation 17 said that the GNWT should look into expanding services at the Nats' Ejee K'eh Alcohol and Drug Treatment Centre to include drug addictions programs.

"I think these people that make recommendations should actually call us and see what we offer. It's really bad public relations for us," said Laroque.

The 30-bed facility currently accommodates 22 patients a month and Larocque said the facility does offer a range of drug treatment services.

The rationale to the recommendation, according to chief coroner Percy Kinney, was testimony by the GNWT indicating the centre's primary focus was not drug addictions.

"It's not their primary focus," said Dana Heide, director of integrated community services with the GNWT. Heide gave testimony during the inquest in regards to the services offered by the treatment centre.

He said facility staff require additional training to offer the type of service that Vawn Ruthven would have needed.

"Training around concurrent disorders, if you are drug addicted and also have a mental disorder, you have to deal with both simultaneously," said Heide.

"It's not a change in the facility it's training in their staff."

Heide said there are plans to add the needed training to accommodate a dual addictions program that works with drug addictions and mental illness. However, he said, there is no timeline to when those services will be offered.

The Hay River facility only offers dual addictions services for individuals with both drug and alcohol addictions.

Derek Elkin, executive assistant to health minister Michael Miltenberger, returned calls made by Yellowknifer to the health minister. Elkin said that Miltenberger had just received a copy of the recommendations last week and the department is reviewing them.

Other recommendations

Another recommendation made to the GNWT calls for a medical detoxification facility in the NWT.

According to testimony such a facility does not exist in the NWT.

As well, the inquest brought forward recommendations that funding allocated to mental illness and addictions more accurately reflect the prevalence of these illnesses in the patient population.

According to testimony Kinney said that mental health and addictions issues make up approximately 40 per cent of health care case loads.

Only two per cent of the health care budget is allotted to servicing those needs.

A similar recommendation was made in the State of Emergency Report that was released in the summer.

The report slammed the GNWT for inadequate funding for addictions services.