SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
For people leaving Yellowknife for drug or alcohol treatment in the south, lacking an after-care plan can spell disaster.

Rick Alexander, community wellness manager at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre, tries to prepare people for life after rehab by helping them set up an after-care plan. - James Goldie/NNSL photo

The GNWT currently does not offer in-patient or residential drug and alcohol addiction programs in the territory, which means addicts seeking this kind of treatment must travel to Alberta or British Columbia to one of five facilities approved for funding by the GNWT.

However, the community wellness manager at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre said many people struggling with addiction mistakenly think the road to recovery stops at one of these residential programs.

"They go off to a treatment facility, they're all better, they come back and within days or weeks they're back at it again," said Rick Alexander.

Although Yellowknife may not have inpatient options for addiction, Alexander said, the city is home to all the necessary after-care services and programs. The key, he said, is setting up a plan before heading south.

"Here in Yellowknife, there are probably significant resources that are probably underused by most people," he said. Such resources include the health department's Community Counselling Program, which sets up patients with addictions counsellors and wellness staff. There are also groups in Yellowknife like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous.

Alexander works with addicts before they go into residential treatment programs to ensure they have an after-care plan.

Kimberly Fairman, director of mental health and addictions at the Department of Health and Social Services, agrees this is critical.

"It's not just about that 28-day period or that 40-day period, it's about is this person ready and do they have the supports ready for them when they return," she said.

Fairman acknowledged that even if after-care is not strictly a mandatory component of leaving NWT for residential treatment, her staff tries to make sure patients have a support system waiting for them upon return.

"(After-care is) not so much a requirement, but in terms of best practice, we do book the follow-up appointment," she said.

In 2010, one woman, who asked that her name not be published, left Yellowknife for a 28-day residential treatment program for alcoholism, but made no plans for afterward.

"Without any supports, I quickly fell back into the addiction," said the 36-year-old mother of two. "Having one glass of wine, then I was just drinking on the weekend, and that was when my whole life just became unmanageable again."

By last August, she said she had also become addicted to crack cocaine. That was when she felt she needed to try again. She traveled to Calgary and spent 42 days at the Aventa Treatment Foundation for Women. This time, her doctor referred her to the Tree of Friendship before going. She worked with a counsellor to prepare for rehab and for the return.

"We had a plan in place to make sure I attend meetings when I got back," she said. "To tell you the truth it's so different from the first time I got sober."

Fairman said the possibility of NWT residential addiction facilities is not off the table but that it's important for people to remember after-care is equally important and in Yellowknife there are lots of options.

"I think what we're trying to do is provide the broadest options for people who are seeking treatment," she said. "Whether that means they need to travel out of the territory or if in the future there was a treatment centre here, I think (a holistic approach is) always the goal."

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