Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 09/98) - Addiction services across the North took another hit last week with the announcement that the territorial Youth Addictions Program will close Dec. 31.

And this doesn't sit well with Fort McPherson addictions counsellor Norma Snowshoe, who says it will mean that more youths won't be able to get the help they need.

"It's upsetting -- I was surprised," she said. (It will mean) more youth getting into trouble and turning to inhalants. There's a lot of youth who need that program." The NWT Youth Addictions Program operated in the NAS downtown Yellowknife facility on a $584,000 annual budget.

But, despite the location, Health and Social Services Minister Kelvin Ng said in the legislative assembly last Wednesday that the treatment centre services youth across the territories.

"First of all, I would like to clarify it is not a Yellowknife Youth Treatment Centre," he said. "It is a territorial Youth Treatment Centre that happens to be based here with Northern Addictions Services."

The Department of Health and Social Services is planning to develop a more effective program in the new year that it expects to be operational by April 1, 1999.

The program has counselled more than 60 youths during the past five years since its inception.

Earl Johnson, president of Northern Addictions Services Board, said the cut came as a disappointment when it was announced last week.

"We didn't like to see it happen, but we did our best to see it continue," he said.

Johnson does, however, see the program closure as an opportunity to devise a new service that's better than the previous one.

"I think at this point, it's giving up something for something much better coming down the line," he said. "It wasn't working the way we wanted it to."

NAS hired Yellowknife consulting firm Management North to look at youth programs in other areas last summer to help assess the NWT's youth program.

The review revealed that the youth program at NAS needed some work, said Johnson, adding "That told us we need address other issues."

The new program will take a more holistic approach to treating youth, said Cathy Praamsma, assistant Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services.

"We'll look at a much broader system -- to try and incorporate mental health," she said.

It's expected the youths who would have been referred to the program will either be sent to the south for treatment or offered service in the NWT on a case-by-case basis after Dec. 31, according to Praamsma.

Ng maintains shutting the program down for a few months will allow the department to develop a more effective model.

"This move will help focus on developing a treatment model which will best meet the needs of Northern children and youth," he said in a press release last week.

Praamsma also said it's possible the GNWT will tender out the new model of service.

"Obviously, it will be provided by a delivery agent," she added.