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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Vancouver's infamous Insite facility, where intravenous drug users can shoot up under the supervision of a health-care worker, might soon be acquiring a sister site for alcoholics.

Drinkers in the North have few options if they want help. There is only one residential treatment program in the NWT, located in Hay River. - NNSL photo illustration

A drinker's lounge, where a limited amount of "maintenance drinks" are served to help wean people off alcohol in products such as mouthwash and cologne, is gathering momentum and support.

This type of program, which focuses on harm reduction instead of complete abstinence, is unlikely to be copied in the North, according to those who work in the mental-health sector.

"I think harm reduction is much more of a southern philosophy," said Kristine Vannebo-Suwala, executive director of Hay River's Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre, the only residential treatment centre in NWT.

Instead, the focus of their program is to find the balance between physical, mental, emotional and spiritual life, she said. While approximately 90 per cent of their clients enter the Hay River program hoping to quit drinking completely, just a small minority aim to cut back their consumption.

"If a client came and their goal is they want to continue drinking, we would certainly help that," Vannebo-Suwala added.

The Matrix Program, an outpatient addiction treatment program being run in Fort Smith, Fort Providence and Fort Simpson, also has a strong focus on abstinence.

"We find that it works for our clientele," said Leili Heidema, clinical supervisor for mental health services in Fort Smith.

"It just depends on what the client wants," she said, adding that in one-on-one counselling sessions the harm reduction route is still available as an option.

Marion Allaart, executive director of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said they are starting to push for harm reduction programs in the south because of the obvious need for a second option.

"We just realized that they need a consumption site as much as anything. We want them to be safe," she said.

Since the beginning of the summer, a group of Vancouver alcoholics and illicit alcohol drinkers have been meeting every Monday morning to discuss what an Insite for alcoholics would look like.

The result, according to Allaart, was surprising.

"They have very clear ways of how it would work and what kind of space it would be. It's inspiring to hear them talking," she said.

All they would need is a simple space, she said, with a bar and couches and tables, where each patron is administered a certain dose of alcohol per hour or per day.

Nicole Latham, who also works with the network, said it would be similar to methadone programs for heroin addicts, where an addict's dosage of methadone is slowly increased until they're off the original drug completely.

The alternative, she said, is that the government picks up the cost of imprisoning drinkers and caring for them in the health-care system.

Vannebo-Suwala said that for the time being, the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre will continue to focus on abstinence, as well as addiction-related issues like mental health, family violence and domestic violence.

"Here, at our centre, we focus more on the harm that continued substance abuse can do in their life," Vannebo-Suwala said.

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