Pubdate: Sat, 26 Aug 2000 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2000 The Toronto Star Contact: One Yonge St., Toronto ON, M5E 1E6 Fax: (416) 869-4322 Website: http://www.thestar.com/ Forum: http://www.thestar.com/editorial/disc_board/ Page: M2 Author: Alison Blackduck, Toronto Star Staff Reporter YOUTH TREATMENT PROGRAMS SWAMPED Record numbers of young Torontonians are requesting professional help to overcome drug addictions and alcoholism - more than there are treatment programs for. According to the Toronto Research Group on Drug Use, requests for treatment among people age 24 and under have risen almost 50 per cent since 1994 - from 333 between 1994/1995 to 491 between 1998/1999. Yet the funding for addiction services has been frozen at 1993 levels, at $110 million. The average waiting time for Toronto's six provincially funded youth treatment centres is estimated at four to five months. None of those six centres is residential. There are only two such residential centres for youth in Ontario: Sister Margaret Smith Centre in Thunder Bay and Alwood Treatment Centre Inc. in Ottawa. But even those two programs are limited. Sister Margaret Smith Centre runs a five-week program for youth ages 13 to 17. There are now 21 people on the waiting list for the centre's 10 spaces. Most of the 10 won't be admitted until September. Alwood is a six-month program (followed by 18 months of aftercare) for youths ages 16 to 25. There are seven people on Alwood's two-month waiting list. Of the 14 beds available, eight are reserved for males, six for females. According to this year's Drug Use In Toronto report, the major problem substances cited by young clients receiving substance abuse treatment are cannabis (25 per cent), alcohol (22 per cent), cocaine (21 per cent) and heroin/opium (8 per cent). - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart