Canada Drug Rehab

Cathy Patterson-Sterling, MA, RCC

Cathy Patterson-Sterling, Director of Family Services for Sunshine Coast Health Centre, shares why it is so important to have a strong after-care plan and support network after addiction treatment.

By Daniel Jordan, General Manager
Sunshine Coast Health Center

It is often easy to overlook the damage alcohol causes in our society since, unlike other drugs like cocaine, it is legal. Alcohol continues to be encouraged as a social “lubricant” in our busy world as a way to unwind or to have fun. However, as Emergency Services prepares to gear up for another high school graduation, perhaps it is time to review some important statistics about the alcohol-related health and social harms in BC and Canada.

Types of Harms Related to Alcohol

According to the BC Provincial Health Officer, alcohol-related health and social harms derive largely from four properties or effects of consumption:

1. Toxicity - alcohol poisoning (overdose)

Death from acute cardiac arrhythmia or acute pancreatitis. More often than not, alcohol overdoses affect the inexperienced drinkers who tend to be under age.

2. Intoxication - injury or crime

Death or injury resulting from violence, sexual assault, crime, alcohol-involved traffic casualties, etc.

- According to the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, approximately one-quarter of the 400+ fatal motor vehicle crashes that occur every year in BC are alcohol-related (Rajabali & Pike, 2008).

- According to a 2002 study (Pernanen, Cousineau, Brochu, & Sun, 2002), one-third of all crimes, charges, and prison sentences in Canada involve alcohol.

- A recent study by the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed that more than 21 per cent of sexual assaults are facilitated by drugs, up from 12 per cent in 2003. While this is a huge increase, an equally important finding from the Canadian Medical Association Journal research is that almost 90 per cent of these victims had used alcohol before the attack.

- Deaths due to toxicity (poisoning) and intoxication (injury)combined accounted for 2.7 per cent of all deaths in BC between 2001 and 2005 (Source: BC Alcohol and Other Drug Monitoring Project).

3. Dependence - alcoholism

Long-term excessive use of alcohol is directly linked to cirrhosis of the liver, some types of cancers, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), brain damage, and wasting of the limb and heart muscles.

- In a 2002 Canadian Community Health Survey, 3.6 per cent of the BC population (122,400 people) were estimated to be alcohol dependent.

- There is a strong correlation between heavy alcohol use and mental health conditions, such as major depression and anxiety disorders. It is estimated that 1.3 per cent of Canadians age 15 and older (approximately 336,761) reported experiencing co-occurring major alcohol use and mental health disorders in the previous year (Rush et al., forthcoming).

- Deaths due to chronic drinking accounted for 2.1 per cent of all deaths in BC between 2001 and 2005  (Source: BC Alcohol and Other Drug Monitoring Project).

4. The Intergenerational Effect of Alcohol - Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

A fourth source of harm that involves alcohol is alcohol consumption by pregnant women. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, or FASD, is the leading cause of preventable mental disability in Canada. FASD is unique in that the harm inflicted is to the unborn fetus rather than to the alcohol-consuming individual or other members of society. Estimates are for every 1,000 babies born up to 3 will have the full features of FASD, while an additional 5 or 6 will have significant long-term disabilities. In BC, between 200 and 320 infants may be born affected by alcohol each year (Provincial Health Officer, 2002). A substantial protion of the costs of special needs education, youth justice, adult incarceration, homelessness, and adddiction can be attributed to FASD (Provincial Health Officer, 2002).

Conclusion

The ripple effect of alcohol in Canadian society is revealed in the statistics. According to the 2004 Canadian Addiction Survey , 10 percent of Canadians reported at least one harm during the past year from one’s own drinking (age 15+) and nearly 4 in 10 reported at least one harm * during the past year from others’ drinking (18+).

At our treatment center, alcohol is still the drug of choice for over three-fifths of our clients. For those whose drug of choice is cocaine, alcohol is often their second drug of choice. Even though we don’t treat for date-rape drugs since few develop a dependence to them, our date-rape drug section accounts for four of our top 10 search terms for people visiting our Sunshine Coast Health Center website. We believe there is a need for public education on how alcohol is a factor in sexual-related assaults.

Hopefully, Canadians will begin to appreciate that there are many ways to get hurt, directly or indirectly, from alcohol. One does not need to develop alcoholism to be negatively impacted. This message needs to be conveyed to high school students who often have a very narrow understanding of the harms associated with alcohol.

(*) Note: Harms associated with others’ drinking include (1) being insulted or humiliated (22.1%), (2) verbal abuse (15.8%), (3) serious arguments or quarrels (15.5%), (4) being pushed or shoved (10.8%), (5) family or marriage problems (10.5 %), and (6) being hit or physically assaulted (3.2%).

Source

This blog article is a summary of Public Health Approach to Alcohol Policy: An Updated Report from the Provincial Health Officer issued in December 2008 by P.R.W. Kendall, Provincial Health Officer. 

Dedication

This blog is dedicated to Richie Dowrey who is in grave condition in hospital following a punch to the face from a fellow patron at the Fountainhead Pub on Davie Street in Vancouver on St. Patrick’s Day. Richie was punched without warning or any apparent reason. Richie has two children. Our prayers are with him and his family for a speedy recovery.

References

Du Mont, Janice; Macdonald, S.; Rotbard, N.; Asllani, E.; Bainbridge, D.; and Cohen, M. (March 2009)
Factors associated with suspected drug-facilitated sexual assault
Can. Med. Assoc. J., 180: 513 - 519 ; doi:10.1503/cmaj.080570

Pernanen, K., Cousineau, M., Brochu, S., & Sun, F. (2002) Proportions of crimes associated with alcohol and other drugs in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

Provincial Health Officer (2002) Public health approach to alcohol policy: a report of the Provincial Health Officer. Victoria, BC: Ministry of Health Planning.

Rajabali, F., & Pike, I. (2008) Alcohol-related motor vehicle crash deaths in British Columbia: 2003-2005. Vancouver, BC: BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit.

Rush, B., Urbanoski, K., Bassani, D., Saulo, C., Wild, C., Strikes, C., et al. (forthcoming) Prevalence of co-occurring substance use and other mental disorders in the Canadian population. Canadian journal of psychiatry.

By Cathy Patterson-Sterling, MA, RCC
Director of Family Services, Sunshine Coast Health Center

 The “make sure you look both ways before you cross the street” safety talk, the “Birds and Bees” and “where do babies come from talk”, and, of course, the dreaded talk about alcohol and drugs are a sampling of the many milestone talks that we will have with our children as they grow up through the years. For many of us as parents, the alcohol and drug talk can be one of the most challenging. The following includes five tips parents may wish to keep in mind that, besides the “don’t do drugs” talk, will help keep their kids safe from the harms associated with drugs and alcohol:

Tip #1: Be mindful of your relationship with alcohol/drugs/mood-altering substances

Remember that children’s greatest influence is their parents and parents are likely the first people to introduce to their children the meaning of alcohol and drugs by using substances themselves or through their comments. Therefore parents should be mindful of the meaning substances have in their lives such as: “I need a cigarette,” “Oh no! I’m out of coffee! I guess my morning is shot,” or “What a day! Someone get me a Tylenol.”

Tip #2: Teach your children to work through their feelings

Addicted individuals do not believe they can function without alcohol and drugs. Such people are “numbing feelings,” “escaping pain,” and “mood-altering in order to feel good.” Parents need to help their children understand that feelings are normal and need not be overwhelming. Furthermore, the problems or thoughts that created these undesirable feelings will still be there when the effects of the mood-altering substance fade away.

Tip #3: Allow your children to experience consequences and learn from their mistakes

In life, we as people will make good decisions and mistakes. We need to experience consequences for our decisions so that, depending on the outcome, we repeat or avoid making the same decision the next time.  There are natural consequences for all of our decisions in life. As parents, we can help our children reflect on their decisions at each stage so that they learn to take responsibility for their behaviours. This critical thinking skill will be necessary for when they go through the teenage experimental years and are exposed to drugs/alcohol.   

Tip #4: Teach your kids self-preservation

People do not have to be addicts or alcoholics to die from booze and drugs. Many do so by accident, particularly youth. Drug and alcohol use can easily become a self-destructive activity especially if people are drinking/using drugs in excess and are making poor decisions such as driving while impaired. Statistics show that many deaths and harms associated with drugs and alcohol are committed by accident by the inexperienced drinker or drug user (i.e. fights, car crashes, falls, poisonings, etc.) *. As parents, we can teach our children to practice self-preservation by taking care of themselves and making personal safety a priority.

(*) Source: Public Health Approach to Alcohol Policy: An Updated Report from the Provincial Health Officer (December 2008) P.R.W. Kendall, OBC, MBBS, MSc, FRCPC

Tip #5: Connect your children to positive activities

Youth with dreams, goals, and a sense of belonging will move more quickly through the stage of experimentation with alcohol/drugs. Essentially, drugs and alcohol are “dream-stealers” and youth need to know that if they stay in this alcohol/drug mis-use stage long enough that they will depend on substances to cope in life as they slowly start to give up on more ambitious goals for themselves.

Conclusion

By practicing these five tips at home, parents can begin to plant the seeds of prevention where kids will naturally start to make the right choices. Parents need not concern themselves with becoming experts or worry that their past experimentation with drugs or alcohol will make them sound like hypocrites. By being a positive role model, expressing concern for their safety and health, and involving them in positive activities, parents can help insulate their kids from alcohol- and drug-related harm.