Health and Community Services Minister Ross Wiseman announced last week that his department has a sustained commitment to ensure current addictions treatment programs are meeting the needs of youth in this province.
He talks of significant developments geared toward services for youth - day treatment programs, more counsellors, the awareness campaign "Get Up On It" and establishment of prevention coordinators.
All these things are great, but it's time that Mr. Wiseman "Get Up On It" himself and talk about why this province hasn't got a residential treatment centre for the youth of this province.
There is one such centre located in Sheshatshiu, but we can't really include that as a provincial asset because it is strictly for the aboriginals with a focus on traditional aboriginal values, beliefs and practices. Two key components of that program are connecting to the land and spirituality. While that is great for the aboriginals, Mr. Wiseman sidelined in his release that the task force recommended the continuation of out-of-province referrals for residential treatment programs for youth.
It should be embarrassing for our government to send our youth, who chose to get help, off to some other province to get what they should be able to receive here at home.
Mr. Wiseman shouldn't need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in surveys and studies to ascertain the current commitment falls shamefully short of being enough.
It would be interesting to find out the actual number of youth we cast out each year in search of help for drug addiction and do some math to factor in those who might need it, but are deterred from treatment because it is indeed out of province.
It's sad for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and it should also be embarrassing.
We have more and more problems with drugs, alcohol, solvents, and more and more gambling addictions. Every time we tune into the news it seems there are armed robberies and break-ins around the
Government definitely is responsible to do its utmost to repair the damage of these addictions, a lot of which are very much a profit cow for the government.
How our health minister can say he needs to see if the current addiction treatments are meeting the needs of the young Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should leave us to assume he isn't totally tuned into what's happening.
There should be enough data currently in place to offer the minister a solid answer.
Data collected by Canada Rehab reports that approximately 20,000 people in this province are suffering from addiction and in need of rehab programs and detoxification.
There is only one detox facility in this province and three residential facilities (one for aboriginal youth and the other two for adults).
Within the three residential facilities combined, only 120 beds are available for 20,000 in need.
We can compare this province with
But the similarities end right there.
There are approximately 4,800 Prince Edward Islanders in need of detoxification and intervention, according to the same source, but here's what's surprising; there is one detox facility and an additional four residential facilities, each of which can accommodate approximately 40 addicts bringing the total number of available government-funded beds to approximately 160 beds to be divided amongst the 4,800. Imagine… P.E.I. has more for much less people.
How P.E.I. addresses the needs of addicts puts us, and N.B. to a lesser degree, to total shame for sure.
The message is that this province has taken a very meek stance when it comes to providing appropriate intervention for those amongst us suffering under the influence of addiction. Maybe it's time our government stopped dancing around this very serious problem and actually begin constructing something materialistic to help in a very real way.
Reprinted from The
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