Karen McOuat
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 16/98) - Northern Addiction Services (NAS) passed its 25-year mark last month.

Located in Yellowknife, NAS services the entire North with counselling programs, a detoxication centre and a treatment program for youth.

Don Irwin, director, has been with the centre for more than two years. Irwin says NAS sees a near equal amount of men and women. Of the 218 clients in 1997-98, 101 were Dene, 80 Inuit, 27 non-aboriginal and 10 Metis.

Irwin explains they provide a safe place for substance abusers in trouble.

"We're the only place that takes in inebriates, other than the jail. We also work hand-in-hand with Stanton hospital."

The detox centre is an alternative to taking up beds in the regional hospital, he adds.

People stay in the centre for five or six days. It takes 72 hours for alcohol to leave the system and up to four weeks for pot and other substances.

Unfortunately, the NWT Youth Addictions Program is on its way out. The teen solvent abuse program began early in 1994. Funded through GNWT health and social services, it helps teens from around the NWT come to terms with their addictions. It also deals with the accompanying problems in the lives of youth.

Teens in trouble are flown in to the Yellowknife treatment centre for the five-week program. Irwin says they see many youth from the Eastern Arctic, as well. The youth program will close Dec. 31 of this year.

The closing is said to be temporary. The Department of Health and Social Services is planning to develop a more effective program, starting operations in the spring of 1999. There has not been a decision yet as to whether NAS will be involved.

The main adult treatment takes place at the centre in nearby Dettah. The 28-bed facility opened in 1991. Programing starts off with an assessment of the addictive behaviour. A full-time, four- week program follows.

Irwin says three hours a day are spent in gender-specific groups, and "That's where people disclose their issues." One part of these sessions is called "lifeline", where an individual's family background is discussed.

"We look at their history," says Irwin. "How many suicides there's been, how many relatives have criminal records, how many have had addictions."

General information sessions are held in the afternoons, covering aftercare, Tree of Peace programs, AIDS and STDs. Evenings are spent with material from Alcoholics Anonymous.

"We use the Big Book, which is kind of like the Bible of AA," explains Irwin.

The 28-day AA program originated in Minnesota, to which Northern Addiction Services refers for medical matters. Spiritual counselling provides for a more holistic treatment.

"Men and women here have had an awful lot of trauma, being disempowered by the church and government," says Irwin. "We told local people how they should be living and now we have to deal with the aftermath. We need to deal with people as people."

As a director, Irwin deals with resourcing issues. If there was something he could improve, he says it would be more funds to develop and train staff. He would like to help staff to continue working in emotionally draining situations. Many are recovering addicts themselves.

It's a fine line: "You can either shut it all out and be insensitive, or you end up absorbing too much," he says of dealing with others' addictions.

"I'd like to provide rewards for them, because it's not easy being a social worker."

The way we determine an individual's success is another area Irwin would like to re-evaluate.

"We did a follow-up of the more than 400 people who've been here since 1994," says Irwin, adding that they located about 70 of them. "A third of them are still clean and sober, some have had minor setbacks and some have gone straight back (to the addictive behaviour)."

Irwin cautions that the numbers do not tell the whole story.

"We should look at different measures of success, to more adequately define it," says Irwin. "Like, what kind of life they're now leading."

He cites the example of someone who is still abusing substances, yet they are no longer beating their partner, or who is now more involved in traditional, community-minded activities.

"There are different Northern measures of success. We need a separate yardstick for the North."

Of the NWT residents who go into Yellowknife for treatment, some stay in the city and some return to their communities. Does the abuse pattern resurface once they're back in their old environment? Irwin admits it's not easy: "It takes a dramatic turnaround, a strong person."

The obsessive-compulsive traits of addiction tend to mask an underlying problem. Irwin finds that most substance abusers have been a victim of something.

"We want to put the power back into their life, that it's no longer something that's done TO you," says Irwin. "We promote the 'I' message: 'I can do this.'"