DFC High School creates in-house program supporting students with their oxycodone problem
From tbnewswatch.com
Fighting addiction
Looking to nip a growing oxycodone problem in the bud, Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School officials have created an in-house solution designed to wean students off the powerful narcotic.
The school has developed a drug treatment program designed specifically to deal with addiction to the semi-synthetic opiate, a program believed to be the first of its kind in Canada.
Principal Jonathan Kakegamic on Friday said it’s no secret there’s a Canada-wide crisis with the drug, a painkiller prescribed by doctors, but readily available on the black market and growing in popularity amongst Ontario teens.
Kakegamic denied rumours that upward of 40 per cent of his students were using the drug, but acknowledged it is a problem.
But accepting this as a fact of life just wasn’t something he or his staff was willing to do.
“We chose to address the crisis. We’re not saying it’s a community problem. We’re taking ownership and we have the full support of our chiefs. Parents and students are asking for help, and we can’t turn them away,” he said, noting parents of students at other city high schools might be shocked to learn how prevalent oxycodone is in their hallways.
Still, First Nations youth, many away from family for the first time in their lives, are that much more susceptible. Usage rates are believed to be far higher amongst the Aboriginal teen population than the 1.6 per cent of Grade 7 to 12 students reported in the 2009 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey.
The 14-day program, funded by both the provincial and federal governments, is housed at an off-site physician’s office, and tended to by a pair of volunteer doctors and four nurse practitioners paid for through the Local Health Integration Network.
Suboxone pills are used to treat addiction and negate damaging withdrawal effects.
From Mae Katt’s viewpoint, it’s the best course of action, the solution with the best chance of success against a drug whose addictive forces can capture a user almost instantly. It’s particularly effective with teens, she said.
“We know that (the students) have been short-term users, so they don’t have a lot of long history of addiction. They’re not using other drugs other than the opioid, so for that profile we’re looking at detoxification for them as something that’s very possible,” said Katt, a nurse practitioner who has been working at Dennis Franklin Cromarty for the past eight years.
While alcohol and marijuana continue to be the drugs of choice for teenagers, times are starting to change and for many youngsters in their experimental years, the consequences just aren’t thought out thoroughly enough.
They’re just as surprised as anyone when they get hooked, Katt said.
“They had no idea they were going to get addicted like this. The addiction profile of this drug is not advertised anywhere. It’s a prescription drug that’s hit a black market. For these kids, they’re adolescents, they’re going to try substances,” Katt said.
“We know that about adolescents, even in the mainstream. They’re using multiple substances as well. They’re going to be experimenting with alcohol, with marijuana and with OxyContin. Unfortunately this is the drug that has gotten some of them addicted.”
The program began at Christmastime, Kakegamic said, at the request of students themselves.
“We heard the cries of our youth asking for help,” he said. “Anything we do here is at the students’ request. We don’t force anything on them. All of our programs are from student surveys and talking to our students daily.”
“It takes a solid, human strong soul to say, ‘I’m going to quit this drug,’” he said.
Kakegamic said the pilot program is being carefully monitored countrywide, and he expects if successful similar models will be rolled out in schools across Canada.