INUVIK - When nurse Eric Lavoie worked at Inuvik Regional Hospital's emergency room for 10 months, virtually every day he treated patients with injuries related to drug or alcohol abuse.

Some days they would show up drunk to the emergency room requesting detox treatment, which the hospital couldn't provide because patients must be dry for at least 24 hours. In order to be admitted, they would have to show symptoms of detoxing such as high pulse, high blood pressure, nausea and vomiting.

Eric Lavoie worked as a registered nurse at the Inuvik Regional Hospital for 10 months and says a detox centre in Inuvik is desperately needed. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

"They have to be detoxing," said Lavoie. "But most alcoholics or drug addicts don't want to get to that point because it feels so bad physically so they just have another drink or get another hit so they never feel bad.

"But they know that they shouldn't, but we can't do anything in Inuvik other than say either you get to the point where you're detoxing and then come and see us, or make an appointment with a family doctor."

Lavoie left the Inuvik Regional Hospital in July to pursue another nursing position in a small community hospital in Fox Lake, Alta.

But before leaving, he said he felt a moral obligation to speak out about what he calls the urgent need for an addictions centre in Inuvik - one that's open around the clock and run by a medical team of doctors, nurses and qualified addictions counsellors.

"Why couldn't we have a day program where they go get the treatment they need and are slowly reintroduced into society? Right now there's not enough."

He said detox patients, who are prone to bouts of hallucination, can also pose a threat to other hospital patients.

"It's not something nurses on the floor feel comfortable with, having a patient detoxing, where possibly the next bed over is a mom and a new baby."

The Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services Authority (BDHSSA) mental health and addictions services office operates from the Inuvik Regional Hospital and offers several community counselling programs for individuals and families coping with drug and alcohol addictions. But clients must be referred to the program by a doctor after detox treatment and it's up to them how often they want to meet with counsellors.

Patricia Kyle, manager of mental health and addictions services, said the office is always dealing with new referrals and counsellors are "very busy."

She said any help her department could get would help alleviate the demand. There are currently four Inuvik community councillors with addictions training currently employed at the office.

"The more services we can offer individuals and their families, the better," Kyle said

Mental health and addictions services can refer patients to Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre in Hay River, where patients receive in-house care everyday for 28 days. But patients have to maintain sobriety for 10 days beforehand.

When many of these people return to Inuvik after treatment, Lavoie said, they begin drinking and taking drugs again because they no longer have the support needed to beat their addictions.

"They're thrown back into the same environment," he said. "But there would be less likelihood of that if they've been detoxed in Inuvik and there's a day program here where there's constant support after they leave the centre."

While he said mental health and addictions services provides a great service, it isn't enough.

Dana Heide, Northwest Territories deputy health minister, said while the North needs "more resources for these services," people who need access to addictions treatment get it.

"Anybody who needs treatment, we get them treatment," Heide said.

But as a former frontline medical worker in Inuvik, Lavoie said his colleagues have to pay the price because the situation isn't be dealt with effectively.

"It's a huge problem," he said. "It's easy for them to say that, but we're at the emergency rooms. We have deal with the consequences of the lack of services for these people who fall through the cracks everyday."

Lavoie said one way or another, through public or private money, the town of Inuvik should find a way to build a centre.

"There is tons of money in Inuvik," he said. "They have a social responsibility to put aside some money and fix this. Whether it's private money from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation or the Gwich'in Tribal Council or other public money or a mixture of both, there needs to be a centre."