By Angela Hill

Addictions help comes to those on distant First Nations

Nov 24, 2010 | 5:17 AM

Help will soon be close to home for people working to end their addictions on Ahtahkakoop First Nation, northwest of Prince Albert.

Prince Albert’s Methadone Assisted Recovery Program is linking with Cree Nation Treatment Haven, on the reserve, to offer both the medication and counselling, beginning Dec. 1.

“The special thing is that it’s on the same site, with the same people involved,” said Dr. Leo Lanoie, an addictions specialist and head of the methadone program.

“What happens here in Prince Albert is we have very good relationships with a number of treatment centres and our addictions program. The big problem is we work in different buildings and there is a time and distance gap between when we send people for (counselling) and when they get there.”

Methadone-assisted recovery is one of the last options for opiate drug users struggling to stop using drugs such as dilaudid or morphine.

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Currently there are about 35 people that travel daily from Ahtahkakoop to Prince Albert and back, to pick up their dose of methadone. The most common method of travel for them is hitchhiking.

First Nations Inuit Health allows for transport by medical taxi for the first three months of the treatment, but after that the clients are expected to take a week's worth of medication with them. Not all of the users are ready for this responsibility, so they continue to travel to Prince Albert without the taxi.

The new program will eliminate to the need to travel to city pharmacies.

“I think it will help the community because it will alleviate the hitchhiking back and forth during the winter months because it gets very, very cold. Our fears are one day somebody will be found frozen or hit by a car, this way it will alleviate that part,” said Freda Ahenakew, executive director of Cree Nations Treatment Haven.

First Nations Inuit Health is funding the pilot project, which will see a doctor travel to the First Nation, once a month to prescribe methadone to the clients entering programing through the treatment haven.

“It’s one of the first in Saskatchewan. There is one other treatment centre in BC, but none in Saskatchewan so we will be the first to pilot this project,” Ahenakew said.

“Before they were just taking their medication, there was no (mandatory) programing, but now we have a 35-day (inpatient) program and also an outpatient program. They’ll have a choice to participate in one of the programs in order to participate in the opiate therapy program.”

If they don’t participate, the clients will be forced to resume daily travel to Prince Albert.

“Some of them aren’t ready for carries, so it’s just not safe to let them to take home their methadone,” said Lanoie.

“They can sell their medication, they can divert it and if you divert methadone, people can die. So it’s not safe, so they have to come in and get it every day under supervision. The nice thing about having it done at Cree Haven is that it will be supervised, it’s close to home and it will be linked to a treatment centre.”

If the pilot is successful, it is hoped the program will be expanded in March to include a case manager before opening its doors to people from the surrounding area, said Lanoie.

He estimates there are about 60 people who would benefit from being able to pick up their methadone and receive treatment at Cree Nation Treatment Haven.

ahill@panow.com

Sidebar:

The Methadone Assisted Recovery Program has undergone some changes in Prince Albert as well.

In November, the program opened a dispensary for the medication in the Co-operative Health Clinic.

“The reason we did it, is because it’s self-contained so that people don’t have to walk through a pharmacy,” said Dr. Leo Lanoie, head of the program and an addictions specialist.

“We have a number of people who have been banned from pharmacy because they have stolen stuff so they render themselves untreatable because they can’t find a pharmacy that will dispense methadone to them. This is a pharmacy where there is nothing to steal.”

So far 13 patients are now receiving their medication and Lanoie said he expects a few more will be coming on.