'Whitehorse has shown we can do something'
Yukon capital invests in drug and alcohol detox centre; NWT health minister says current treatment model in territory working well
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
While the Yukon government spends $21 million on a new detox centre in Whitehorse, the NWT government is content to send drug and/or alcohol addicted patients south to B.C. and Alberta for treatment or to "on-the-land" rehab programs.
Daryl Dolynny, MLA for Range Lake, doesn't think the Dettah Road facility could still function as a detox and drug and alcohol treatment centre. |
The Whitehorse detox centre is located downtown and offers several services to people struggling with drug and alcohol problems.
"People going through withdrawal have the medical and clinical supports they need," said Pat Living, communications director for Yukon health and social services.
"People can self refer, RCMP will bring individuals to the detox if that's what the individual requests. It's used for people who honestly want to detox or who just need to sleep it off."
The number of beds will double to 20 in the new facility, Living said, plus a separate facility for youth.
"If you talk to our people (on the front lines) they are going to tell you that these (facilities) are extraordinarily important," Living said.
In the same building, the Yukon government also runs a 24-day residential treatment program for both men and women, from which there are many success stories.
"We have about 1,000 go through the program each year," Living said.
So if the residential treatment program seems to be working well in Whitehorse - with a population larger than Yellowknife by roughly a third - it must be asked: why is there no detox and/or treatment facility in Yellowknife?
According to Health Minister Glen Abernethy the status quo is working well.
There were alcohol addiction treatment facilities in both Yellowknife and Hay River but both closed in 1999 and 2013 respectively. Neither worked, says Abernethy, but those in need of treatment in the territory still have options.
"We have contracts with four facilities in southern Canada (B.C. and Alberta) that have given us a huge range of facility-based services," Abernethy said. "If a person wants facility-based services we've got that taken care of. If we put a facility in Yellowknife, more than half the NWT population would still have to travel to get to it."
The territorial government also offers several on-the-land treatment options, which the minister says have proven successful. The dollar figures suggest the current model is the most economically efficient, says Abernethy.
It cost about three times more to treat somebody at the Hay River facility than it does to send them down south, said Abernethy.
Figures provided by the Department of Health and Social Services show 133 people attended treatment in the final year of operation of the Natsej'ee Keh facility in Hay River. In the first year using southern facilities, 164 people were sent south. The department went on to state that total expenses to support southern treatment for 2014/15 are about $1.3 million compared to about $2 million that it was costing annually to run the Hay River facility.
An additional $1.123 million has been earmarked for on-the-land treatment programs in 2014-2015.
At least one client at the downtown Yellowknife day shelter holds a different view than the territorial government.
"It needs to be put on the table for discussion," said Doug Anderson as he sipped his coffee at the downtown Yellowknife day shelter, adding that there has to be a will for it from the government and the public.
The city's former treatment centre, Somba K'e Lodge, was built in 1991 on the Dettah road and was funded mainly by the Department of Health and Social Services. The facility could house up to 28 patients at a time and offered full-time addiction treatment and counselling services. In 1999, according to a story in Yellowknifer, funding for the facility was pulled by the department which described it as underused and in need of reprogramming.
Daryl Dolynny, the MLA for Range Lake, doesn't think that facility could still function as a detox and drug and alcohol treatment centre.
"I did a fairly intensive investigation into the feasibility of upgrading the Dettah Road facility and it would be almost a do-over," said Dolynny. Dolynny does not understand why the issue of drug and alcohol treatment programs are not higher on the list of government priorities.
"It's clearly being done elsewhere. Whitehorse has shown we can do something. Yellowknife is the logical spot for it," Dolynny said.
"There is just no desire. Every time it gets brought up in the house it gets shot down. The cabinet and the department of health are clearly in opposition to this.
"This is the Achilles heel of the NWT and until we figure this out ... how can we move forward both socially and economically," Dolynny said.
Dr. Claudia Kraft, an emergency room physician who also deals with drug and alcohol addicted patients, said there is no real detox ward at Stanton Territorial Hospital, though added there are some options for people seeking treatment. "They can have a non-medical detox through withdrawal management services through the Salvation Army," she said.
"Or they can be referred by their family doctor to the emergency department for in-patient admission. But there are no formal detox beds at Stanton."
Kraft thinks the current process of sending patients to Alberta and B.C is working well.
"Residential treatment programs are really a small part of the overall treatment picture," she said. "For most people, the best treatment they are going to get is through their primary care physicians - their family physicians and emergency room doctors."
