Sobering up is just first step

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From isolated communities in eastern Canada to the reserves of British Columbia, drug and alcohol treatment centres continue to play an important role among their inhabitants.

Drug and alcohol addiction is recognized as a universal problem that affects everyone. It is prevalent in almost all cultures and communities.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse located in Ottawa has been a link for information on addictions for the last 11 years. It was established by an act of Parliament in 1988 to provide a national focus for Canadian efforts aimed at reducing and eliminating the harm associated with the use of alcohol and other drugs.

From 28-day in-patient co-ed programs in treatment centres to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings all across Canada, the sober movement continues to be popular in Native communities. Some communities have changed and have become healthier; however members from many communities continue to battle alcohol and drug addictions.

"Treatment centres work for some people, not everyone, because you cannot help people if they do not want to help themselves," said Richard Garlick, director of communications at the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. "Even court-mandated treatment would not work if the person does not want to give up their addictions. There has to be a willingness for them to at least make the effort," he said. In Canada, 30 years ago, drug and alcohol treatment centres along with AA meetings and other self-help groups were far and few between. Today, there are a hundred treatment centres and AA groups in every province.

In 1971 a small community in British Columbia began a journey of healing that would change Aboriginal communities all across Canada.

"Alkali Lake is one of the greatest success stories of all time, as far as communities changing and healing," said Garlick. "The success of Alkali Lake created an awareness and people started to recognize the impact alcohol and drugs had in their communities, and the problems it created," he said.

What started out as the sobriety movement in Alkali Lake began in 1972 with Phyllis Chelsea. Chelsea, who decided to quit drinking after her seven-year-old daughter refused to come home, was portrayed in the 1985 film The Honor Of All. In the beginning, nearly everyone in Alkali Lake consumed alcohol, including children. Twenty-seven years later the community continues its arduous journey of healing.

"We are now taking control of our lives and our power. Sobriety is one step. I tell people that they can be sober but if they do not heal themselves it is not going to work," said Alkali Lake's director of social services, Fred Johnson. "We have a ways to go to heal from the foreign systems that we used to go by. The Roman Catholic Church and our traditional ways are very different. We are now beginning to learn our culture," he said.

Initially, treatment centres were believed to be just dry-out centres. However, today, treatment workers are realizing that getting sober is just the beginning.

"In the beginning we used to try to deter the behavior of the clients, but we haven't been looking at the driving force of their underlying pain and abuses," said Patricia Wilson, regional treatment manager, Medical Services Branch, Pacific region. "We used to think that alcohol and drugs were the problem, but it is not just the drinking and the drugs. People are using these alternatives as a sedative, to cover up the pain they are feeling," she said.

In the early 1970s, many Native communities faced the challenges of their members' chronic drinking, bootlegging, alcohol-related deaths, violence, suicide, child sexual abuse and child neglect. During that time it was not uncommon to hear music blaring from your neighbor's home, as people sat around there drinking. Fights would often break out and children would run out of homes crying.

Today, treatment centres all across Canada are treating various addictions and traumas.

"People cannot sit there and say hey've been abused as a child and be automatically healed. It takes time. They have to go through steps," said Wilson. "If residential schools were helpful, it would've reflected in our society, but it did not. That is why you see people down on the drag areas, drinking themselves to death. However some youth are choosing not to go down the destructive road of drinking because their parents decided to stop drinking and are continuing to heal," she said.

According to Garlick, as far as healing goes, Aboriginal communities throughout Canada continue to make progress in healing and continue to gain strengths that were at one time lost to alcohol and drugs. However treating addictions is a difficult process, because people often quit one addiction and then go on to another.

"It is difficult to record statistics of the success rate of individuals who are sober, and stay sober, because often the clients may stay sober but then they get into another form of addiction, such as food, gambling or into drugs," said Garlick. "Some people claim that they lead a sober life, but then they smoke pot, so what is the difference? The only difference is they've switched addictions. Until people heal they will continue to go through this cycle," he said.