Pubdate: Sun, 09 Jun 2002 Source: Sun, The (WA) Copyright: 2002 SunLink Contact: http://www.thesunlink.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1424 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) TRIAGE CARE FOR METH USERS WOULD BENEFIT ALL Only the most sympathetic among us can find much compassion for drug addicts. So when you read the front-page story today about plans to build a $750,000 crisis emergency center for methampheta-mine users, you might cringe. Why should you pay to buy and operate the facility? Because it would benefit you as well as the users. Most directly it would keep disruptive, possibly violent methamphetamine users out of already overcrowded emergency rooms and away from you and your kids when you're awaiting treatment. Emergency rooms aren't designed to handle meth users. The user has to come down from their drug high before doctors can even evaluate whether they need medical treatment. Usually they don't. The jail isn't equipped for them, either. Besides, it's usually full. So the only place police and aid crews can drop users is at the emergency room. Mental health clinics won't take them because they're intoxicated and they're too violent to be placed in a detoxification area. So meth users are dropped at the emergency room and eventually released back to the streets, no better off for the experience. Many become repeat customers to emergency rooms because nothing is being done to change their behavior. Twenty users have been identified who use the emergency room four or more times in six months. One, who has since died, made 44 visits in one year, costing the hospital $200,000. In the long run, a crisis emergency center would save some of that money. Working independently, hospitals, police and mental health clinics are spinning their wheels and wasting public funds. Their methods don't result in successful treatment. They also don't get dangerous users off the street, jeopardizing public safety A crisis emergency center would combine the medical, mental-health and chemical dependency treatments needed to address all of the user's problems and help them break out of their destructive habits. Once users' basic needs are met, they become more stable. The fewer patients, the smaller the cost. Plus, services in emergency rooms are among the most expensive to provide, surpassing $1,000 per patient visit. What appears at first glance to be a big waste of money is actually an innovative way to finally attack a problem that long ago got out of control and continues to escalate. The local group of caregivers who proposed a crisis emergency center should be commended and supported. We can't continue to attack methamphetamine abuse the way we have in the past. Users will become a increasing burden on our police, fire department medics and hospitals until we find a way to reduce the number of users. EDITORIAL BOARD Michael A. Levi Publisher and President Scott Ware Editor Jim Campbell Opinion Editor Tamara Peterson Copy Editor Tom Larsen Operations Director Kerry Breen Community Member Bonnie Henne Community Member Heidi Hottinger Community Member Tom Springer Community Member Jim Sund Community Member - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom