BREAKING THE CYCLE OF ADDICTION

After a full day's work at Teck, Eric Chobanuk would go home and make
all the preparations to start a renovation on his Pass Creek house.

Then, he'd set up all the tools he needed to fix his car.

Then, he'd go to bed.

Lots of preparation, no real progress - that was Chobanuk's life as
he stagnated under a marijuana addiction that peaked at 20 joints a day.

While he never took his habit to work, Chobanuk's addiction was so
bad he'd sometimes wake up three times a night to feed it.

"I'd meet people for coffee and then wouldn't remember who they were
two weeks later. It seemed logical at the time, but there was no
logic in the end," Chobanuk said.

Now 59 years old, Chobanuk started smoking marijuana in his teens.

He said loneliness drove him to the drug, but the drug was never a solution.

While he managed to quit a number of times over the last 16 years,
the addiction always sucked him back in, growing worse each time.

Chobanuk has retired and hasn't smoked in two years.

During that time, however, his struggles to mend the chaos his
addiction wrought over so many years remained, and he never really
addressed the root causes of that addiction.

He now feels he has turned a page thanks to Interior Health's new
regional Addictions Day Treatment Program, which started operating
out of the Castlegar Health Centre in September.

"What I got out of this program was a lot of deep self-respect for
me. I respect myself now totally for who I am. When I left the
program, I felt at peace," said Chobanuk, one of the first Kootenay
Boundary residents to graduate from the program.

The goal of the Day Treatment Program is to create accessible,
effective day programming for adults living in the Kootenay Boundary area.

It builds on supportive counselling and treatment options currently
available in each community.

Although adults requiring treatment for addictions were able to
access individual and group counselling at their community mental
health and addictions offices, an intensive treatment option in the
Kootenay Boundary was lacking prior to this program, and clients had
to travel to the Okanagan for detox facilities and residential treatment.

"What's nice about this program is that people with addictions
sometimes want to find excuses that there's no help around the
Kootenays, but now there is," Chobanuk said.

"People are not alone and they need to ask for help, because help is
there - all you need to do is ask."

The Addictions Day Treatment Program is built upon previous work
undertaken by the Ministry of Health and other evidence-proven
methods of treatment for addiction issues.

Alan Friend, co-facilitator of the program, said intensive day
treatment benefits people with addictions by increasing supportive
treatment hours, bringing treatment options closer to home and
increasing the spectrum of individuals who can attend treatment and
who would otherwise have barriers such as child care. It also
supports the development of peer and other support networks near home.

"When clients leave their communities for residential or detox
treatment, they are in an artificial environment," Friend said.

"While those traditional residential programs still address
addictions issues, having a program in the local area allows clients
to practice and evaluate the effectiveness of the skills they are
learning in their real-life environment throughout their treatment."

Adults eligible for the program have made a commitment to make change
and have the willingness to attend group counselling.

They are free of any acute withdrawal symptoms, psychiatrically
stable and have a mental health and addictions case manager to be
appropriate for the program.

For eight weeks, clients attend the program at the Castlegar and
District Community Health Centre three days a week for six hours a
day and are expected to attend a fourth day of relapse prevention
session at the mental health and addictions office in their home
community. Clients must continue to access support in their
communities during the program and will be expected to attend
follow-up appointments when they complete it.

Chobanuk said his addiction will never fully disappear, but he now
feels he has the confidence and skills to make sure he doesn't give
in to it again. He has also learned that he can't go it alone, and
plans to continue to take advantage of the supports that are available.

In addition to cleaning up the chaos of previous years, Chobanuk is
now a volunteer driver for other mental health and addictions clients
and has offered his support to others who are participating in the
day treatment program.

"I'm not the same person that I was and I'm not the same person that
I thought I was. Who I'm going to be.I'm not certain."

For more information and access to Interior Health's new Addictions
Day Treatment Program, please contact your local mental health and
addictions office.

Boundary: 250-442-0330; Castlegar: 250-304-1846; Nelson:
250-505-7248; Trail: 250-364-6262.