By Sarah Stone

Impaired Driver Treatment Centre teaches offenders a second choice

Mar 17, 2013 | 12:42 PM

Putting your keys in your pocket or in the ignition after a night of drinking is a vital and frequently made choice by Saskatchewan people.

Unfortunately, many are making the wrong decision by choosing to drive while intoxicated, leading to at best an arrest and at worst death.

To help repeat offenders make the right decision, Saskatchewan has an Impaired Driver Treatment Centre located just north of Prince Albert to help address the behavioural aspect of drinking and driving.

“I believe that the work that we’re doing does make a difference and it could be even higher without us. We’re directly addressing the impaired driving behaviour, so to have three weeks of intensive program to do that, I think, is vital,” said Michele Ketzmerick, director of the centre.

Those who are sent to the treatment centre are people who have been charged with a second impaired driving offense and who have been recommended to the judge by a probation officer. Should the judge accept the recommendation and the offender agrees they will spend three weeks of their sentence at the centre.

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According to Ketzmerick, this is the only treatment centre that is also a correctional facility in Canada that they know of and they continually strive to keep the program up-to-date.

“We review the program regularly and assess how we can make it better and every year we go through a review process, are we following best practise or most promising practise based on Health Canada’s recommendations?” she said.

“At the other end of it they tell us what they think of the program because really it’s a service we’re providing to them, so did they find it was beneficial, what was their comprehension level, what did they have to say about the program. So, I do think it’s vital.”

The centre tries to keep track of where the offenders, referred to as ‘clients’, are after they leave the facility and she explained sometimes they do end up back in the program.

“We’ll take repeat offenders because we know with behaviour change and using cognitive behavioural approach that it’s not easy to change behaviour,” she said making a comparison with how many times it takes for a person to stick to a diet. “It may take a while to change that behaviour and to maintain that behaviour change.”

SGI also recognizes the need for a behavioural change to help reduce impaired driving.

“To change behaviour you need both enforcement and awareness and so the enforcement of course, that’s up to police, but where SGI is involved is to try to raise awareness about it that it is an issue,” said Kelley Brinkworth, manager of media relations at SGI.

“I think people know that it’s against the law, that it’s wrong, but yet people continue to do it and that’s where we need to work.”

To help get this message out SGI sponsors several programs such as Ding in the New Year, Operation Overdrive, Operation Red Nose and RIDD, as well as partnering with MADD to conduct presentations across the Saskatchewan.

“I hope that we’re having an impact, that’s certainly our goal to prevent these kind of injuries and deaths on Saskatchewan roads … it’s just a constant battle to try and get the word out there that it’s wrong and that it kills,” Brinkworth said.

Impaired drivers in Prince Albert VS. province in 2012

• Impaired operation of a motor vehicle – 125 in Prince Albert VS. 2,853 in Sask.
• Impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm – 7 in Prince Albert VS. 13 in Sask.
• Impaired operations of a motor vehicle causing death – N/A in Prince Albert VS. 6 in Sask.

Impaired Driving Treatment Centre program

The three-week program is scheduled from start to finish with daily sessions that address root behavioural issues. Ketzmerick said the stress is on personal choice and responsibility.

“We’re very lucky to have community resources come in. The RCMP do a policing perspective, which has been impactful. I mean the clients give us positive feedback about that,” she said, adding MADD Canada and a diabetes nurse are also on the list of resources.

“People come in who have lost someone by an impaired [driver] or they’ve had impact themselves with a car accident and it was an impaired driver, so they’ll talk to clients,” she said. “It’s very impactful because they see what could happen if they continue. This is, especially people who’ve lost a loved one, they see this is what could happen if they continue that behaviour and just seeing that they’ll think more carefully next time.”

The number of offenders who were admitted to the Saskatchewan Impaired Driver Treatment Centre has declined from almost 700 to 421 between 1993 and 2012, but Ketzmerick can’t be positive if that is because of the centre’s effort alone—she said she hopes it is likely part of the reason.

Choosing to drink and drive is completely preventable, which is what they are trying to teach their clients, Ketzmerick said

“It is critical that we’re here, especially considering the issues in Saskatchewan with impaired driving.”

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84