Pubdate: Thu, 17 Nov 2005
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2005 The StarPhoenix
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Author: Janet French, The StarPhoenix
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

HEALTH REGION RACES DEADLINE FOR DRUG TREATMENT FACILITY

The Saskatoon Health Region is scrambling to put the pieces in place
to meet the deadlines established by the province for Project Hope.

When Premier Lorne Calvert announced a $30-million commitment in
August to tackle substance abuse in the province, he said
community-based services would be up and running by 2006-07 and most
residential services would be ready by 2007-08.

The tight timelines were intended to get addicts help
quickly.

"Certainly it's ambitious, and there's no doubt about that," Greg
Drummond, general manager of mental health and addictions for the
health region, said Wednesday. "I think when you get a time frame like
that, you work to those time frames and you do the best you can to get
there. It doesn't mean you 100 per cent of the time get there."

Saskatoon's component of Project Hope will include a new 12-bed youth
stabilization facility, which will be similar to the brief detox
centre, but for youths. There will also be a new facility for
"family-centred care."

"For a number of people who have a significant addiction issue, if
they live in a family and are not able to access other child-care
support, they're sometimes left with their addiction and no way of
getting that need addressed," Drummond said.

The centre could include facilities such as a day care for childen of
parents who are in treatment, he said.

Both projects will need either new or renovated buildings, which
"don't get put up overnight," Drummond said. He hopes the region will
turn sod on the youth centre by 2007, but doesn't have an estimated
opening date for the family centre.

Because the province wants the programs running by 2007, staff are
making an interim plan for how to offer these services before they
have a home.

Other components of Project Hope include better outreach services and
transition housing, so people who leave detox have a safe place to
stay where they can avoid the triggers that made them drink or take
drugs.

Staff won't even think about planning these extra services and
facilities until next year, Drummond said.

When the new programs are up and running, Drummond estimates between
40 and 60 jobs will be created in Saskatoon and up to 100 new jobs in
the province.

He said he wants to see more people enter training programs in
anticipation of these new jobs openings.

When Drummond presented the plans to the Saskatoon Health Region's
board Wednesday, board member Audrey Ahenakew said she hopes to see
aboriginal faces among the new psychiatrists, addictions counsellors,
nurses and clerical workers who will staff the expanded programs.

"I know that my people, the aboriginal people, have a real problem
(with crystal meth)," she said.

Although the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses has yet to hear how many
nurses are needed for the new programs, president Rosalee Longmoore is
pleased to hear new and challenging jobs are opening up.

"New graduates in the health-care system should be excited about this
job opportunity," she said. "I just worry about the timelines, and if
we don't recruit the new staff that are required, the effects that
that will have on some of our existing units."

The Project Hope action plan was unveiled as a result of MLA Graham
Addley's report on substance abuse in the province. Addley has since
been appointed minister of healthy living services.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake