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More time needed to evaluate
mandatory detox for youth conference
November 27, 2007
Nov 27, 2007
EDMONTON - The effectiveness of
locking up addicted teens against their will appears to be
successful, but more time is needed to evaluate the programs, say
officials from the three Prairie provinces that offer the service.
Legislation on mandatory youth
detoxification has been in effect in Alberta and Saskatchewan for
more than a year, and for almost a year in Manitoba.
"Youth detox quicker than adults
and so this isn't treatment, this is simply getting the drug out of
their system and getting them somewhat stabilized in order to move
on to another treatment," Lorri Carlson of Regina Qu'Appelle Health
Region said Tuesday after a session at a national substance abuse
conference.
The legislation came about mainly
due to pressure from parents of teens who abused crystal
methamphetamine and who felt they had no other way to get their
children help.
"It was largely parent-driven,"
Beverly Mageau of Manitoba Health and Healthy Living told delegates.
Since Manitoba's program began last
December, Mageau said only about three per cent of the 57 teens
forced into detox have reported crystal methamphetamine use. In
Saskatchewan, of the 142 teens that have been in the safe house,
only 12 reported using crystal meth.
All three provincial programs have
found the substances most abused by teens are marijuana, alcohol and
crack cocaine.
"It was a big concern, everyone was
concerned about crystal meth," Mageau said in an interview.
"We had a lot of discussions and a
big crystal meth strategy and maybe that had something to do with
it, I don't know, but the result now is crystal meth has not become
the problem that was anticipated."
Susan McLean of the Alberta Alcohol
and Drug Abuse Commission, which runs the safe houses for youth
ordered into detox, agreed, saying the numbers for crystal meth are
similar in Alberta.
Between July 2006, when Alberta
started the program, to April 2007, 351 youth were ordered into safe
houses, and 49 per cent continued treatment voluntarily after being
let out.
McLean said further evaluation is
needed to find out why the other 51 per cent did not want to
voluntarily get further help for their addictions.
All three provincial programs
target teens under 18. While the legislation is worded differently,
all essentially allow parents and guardians to apply to the court to
have their child assessed and ordered into secure detoxification for
a specified period. Saskatchewan is the only jurisdiction to allow
police to apply for the order.
In Alberta and Saskatchewan, it's
up to five days, while in Manitoba it's seven days.
Saskatchewan can have more time to
help teens because their certificates, or orders, can be renewed up
to three times, for a total of 15 days," Carlson said.
"The longer that they're in youth
detox, we find, the more willing they are to go voluntary treatment,
so if we see some growth we actually can keep them a little longer."
Heather Clark of the Canadian
Centre on Substance Abuse told delegates that they have found some
obstacles to the programs.
They include community opposition
to having a safe house in their neighbourhood; transporting youth to
and from the safe houses; having enough addictions specialists to
perform assessments; and high turnover of staff.
A health worker from Nova Scotia
told people at the session the legislation is a great idea.
"When I first heard of this a year
and a half ago, I cheered. I'm a parent, this makes total common
sense to me as a parent," said Blair Gallant of Capital Health in
Dartmouth.
"I wish I was in one of these three
provinces, where I would have somewhere to turn. In the province I
currently live in, I don't.
"My son would just run the streets,
which is unfortunate, because a lot of people think he should just
run the streets because he has rights," he said to laughter from the
crowd.
Clark said all three provinces are
collaborating to share information and to evaluate their programs so
as to make it better.
"When these facilities first
opened, there were a lot of questions, like, OK, does it work? Right
now we actually need to learn about our target group, assess them
and make sure we have the services in place before we start to ask
those questions, and that takes time."
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