The recently opened detox centre at Montreal Lake Cree Nation is just one piece of a much bigger plan to combat drug use in the community. (submitted photo)

By Nigel Maxwell

Community action plan

Montreal Lake invited to national meetings to discuss crystal meth strategy

Jan 20, 2020 | 5:00 PM

The community of Montreal Lake Cree Nation (MLCN) is taking proactive stance on issues related to crystal meth, and their work has caught the attention of other First Nation leaders in Canada who face the same struggles.

Later this month, representatives from Montreal Lake will travel to Ottawa to discuss their five-year crystal meth reduction strategy. Chief Frank Roberts told paNOW he is very excited about the possibilities.

“They want to promote our plan as a model to be used across Canada,” he said.

Two key parts of MLCN’s plan include the opening of both a treatment centre and a detox centre. The eight-bed detox facility will begin taking patients this week.

“The detox centre is kind of the missing piece we were working on all along for our band members so we are really excited about it,” Roberts said.

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Discussions, which were largely driven by the band’s child and family services department through prevention and health programs, began roughly two years ago. With an increase in crystal meth use in the community, Roberts said leadership recognized the need to take action.

“[We were] looking for answers and looking for places where our band members can access treatment facilities and we found there was nothing that really existed,” he said.

Camp Hope which opened in the fall of 2014 at Montreal Lake offers some treatment programs for family groups, and there’s a more individualized treatment facility at Little Red scheduled for opening next week. Roberts said it offers 16 to 24 beds, depending on the need.

“When [the patients] are done their 14 day detox, they can either go to the [treatment facility] in Little Red or if they have families, they can do the family one here,” he said.

Another part of the community’s reduction strategy is boosting security. Roberts explained during the discussions, there was a need identified to address not just the increasing gang activity in the community, but to also put a stop to the drugs and alcohol coming into the community.

“We set up road blocks and we kind of stagger them because they get to know where your road blocks are, the ones that are trying to do things illegally,” he said, adding the band works closely with the RCMP.

“The security are starting to get that knowledge to who is coming in and out on a regular basis, or any strange vehicles coming into the community, they notify RCMP right away,” Roberts said.

A fourth part of the program and one of the key pillars is community support. The community has a food program to help the people who are coming off the drugs and are hungry. There’s also a special community response team trained to respond at all hours of the day to incidents in the community, such as suicides.

“Our security works with the community response team too and with the health program so all the programs are kind of connected together so they can respond as one,” Roberts said.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell