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THE WEEKEND OUTLOOK Friday May Page 1 Features- Addiction Research Foundation addressing youth The corridors of the youth clinic at the Addiction Research Foundation are the first indica tion that it isnt a typical hospital setting Posters about safe sex cover the bulletin board a ping- pong game is in full swing at the far end of the hallway and in the lounge area a group of teenagers relax feet up shooting the breeze Neither the atmosphere nor the kids whove come here for treatment seem intimidating yet thats how many profes sionals who work with teenagers feel when it comes to young peo ple and drugs Elsbeth Tupker is the director of the Foundations youth clinic In the past youth workers have tended to refer kids as soon as they identify a drug problem she says Many of them have told me they just dont know how to deal with it The Addiction Research Foun dation is responding with an education program that will help a wide range of professionals learn how to deal with young peo ple and drugs Tupker was delighted when she was asked to involved She That was four years ago The project has since grown beyond anyones expectations in cluding an agreement in to develop it as part of the Canadian Drug Strategy Tupker is a veteran when it comes to counselling teenagers I was already working in the field she says Id been teaching a course for several years on young people and drugs for the Foundations Department Dr Helen of Training and Education and I was seeing a growing interest in this area More and more youth workers with no special exper tise in addictions were attending my workshops And as I met these frontline workers I began to realize that they were capable of doing a lot of the work themselves in terms of assessing kids with drug problems and dealing with them The proposal for a special education package was unique however It would reflect Tupkers practical experience but it was to be rooted in scien tific research to be coordinated by Dr Helen also of the Addiction Research Foundation It was an interesting project from a scientists perspective says Annis because it meant that a lot of very technical in formation would have to be made accessible to people without a scientific background to show them there was nothing par ticularly sacred or godlike about that knowledge and assembled a large team of experienced addic tions specialists to produce the necessary materials including experts from the Hospital for Sick Children and Central Toron to Youth Services After months of work a pilot program was ready consisting of written and audiovisual materials that would be available in either selfstudy or trainerled formats Then began an unusually exten sive review and evaluation In the summer of a first draft of Youth and Drugs materials was reviewed internally In December a second draft was sent to about reviewers from agencies across Canada a group that included teachers probation officers and youth workers There was an extraordinary amount of interest remembers People wrote back with comments and suggestions ranging all the way from correc tions of grammatical errors to the issue of how cultural factors tie into drug abuse By May of Youth and Drugs was ready for pilot testing and Tupker soon found herself crisscrossing Canada We tested the package in threeday intensive training sessions in Ed monton Halifax and Toronto And what we heard again and again from the people who took part was how readable and realistic both the materials and the approach were agrees It was a chance to demystify the assessment and treatment process to empower professionals who feel they dont have the expertise to deal with kids who are using drugs And thats going to make a big dif ference in being able to intervene in the early stages of drug abuse And in a way says Tupker what were also telling adults is to remember their own adolescence I see plenty of tangi ble evidence of it myself right next door to my office And I think Youth and Drugs is a reflec tion of that The Addiction Research Foun dation is an agency of the Pro vince of Ontario Hospital trustees come from all walks of life By HILARY SHORT In todays changing health care system economic realities pre sent new challenges for the com munity representatives who govern local hospitals The deci sions they make will affect our health care future Known as directors governors or trustees the board members who serve this provinces many hospitals are volunteers They come from all walks of life br inging their experience and ex pertise to the complex task of governing their local hospital Brian Ontario Hospital Association OHA chair and member of the Scar borough General Hospital board for the past 11 years says that the job of a trustee has become more demanding and more im portant Hospitals are one of the key institutions in a community because they are important to everyone everyone has a need to use them at sometime Birkness notes Most people come to the board because they are involved in the community or we seek them because of their background skills and experience he says The community represen tatives bring the interests character and needs of the com munity to the decisionmaking of the board Birkness adds Most hospital trustees are elected by the members of the hospital corporation which anyone in the community who is interested in their local hospital can join Usually trustees are elected at the annual meeting of the corporation so that everyone has a say in who is chosen The contribution that volunteer hospital trustees make is in valuable As an example one teaching hospital has estimated that the expertise of volunteers on one committee alone is worth over a year in consulting GEORGETOWN DISTRICT MEMORIAL HOSPITAL fees Hospital boards have signifi cant responsibilities They look after the hospitals financial operation They oversee the in stitutions quality of care And they grant hospital privileges to doctors wishing to practice within that facility Today hospital boards must also deal with another new reali ty the trend towards shifting more and more health care ser vices out of hospitals and into the community Cliff Kitson a retired teacher has served as a trustee on Kenoras Lake of the Woods Hospital board for the past eight years The Kenora hospital board is unique in Ontario its trustees are elected by a public vote dur ing municipal elections Kitson feels that the trend to communitybased health care means there will have to be greater cooperation between hospitals and other agencies and that this shift presents new op portunities for creative ap proaches and services Kitson points to his involve ment in the development of a pro gram which provides native peo ple with access to traditional healing methods The program is delivered by the hospital in cooperation with the local native community The changing philosophy in health care is hopefully going to be very helpful to people Kitson Elizabeth Ells a volunteer board member for 12 years and current chair of the Deep River and District Hospital in the Ot tawa Valley agrees that the nature of the job has changed dramatically since I first began serving All you needed then was a sense of community responsibili ty she says Health care meant the hospital and there seemed to be enough money to provide necessary services Theres a whole new and challenging perspective Ells says Trustees have to think in broader terms The community representatives are having to make more contentious deci sions Ells lifelong interest in health care led her to stand for election to the board of her small local hospital As a teenager in her native England Ells was a hospital volunteer Later she worked in laboratory research at Atomic Energy Canada Ltd s health services division She also volunteered as an ambulance driver while she stayed at home with her young children In Ontano public hospitals have boards of trustees made up on average of between 17 to 20 members Some municipal politicians are trustees by virtue of their elected office And a small number of members are appointed by municipal and provincial govern ments While board members are keeping pace with changing responsibilities for governing their hospitals and planning for the future they Still have to tend to one traditional duty fundrais- ing Hospital boards still put a lot of their energy into local draising campaigns for buildings and equipment particularly in tight economic times Despite the fact that the On tario government took over hospital funding in hospital boards are still required to come up with onethird of the money for any new building projects Whether theyre staging a draising event pouring over reports on the future trends in health care or working with a community group to launch a new health service the volunteer trustees bring the communitys interests to the board table MS Society starts campaign By LISA BOONSTOPPELPOT The Herald For the first time in recent years volunteers from the Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society will be actively campaigning by selling carna tions during Multiple Sclerosis MS Week beginning May Volunteers laden with freshly cut carnations and silk carna tions will be standing in local grocery stores liquor stores and beer stores selling the colorful flowers for a donation of said the coordinator of the local drive Doris Hueck We sell carnations to support our MS clients in the area she said There are MS sufferers in Halton Hilts listed but she estimates that number represent only half of the number of MS patients in the area MS is a disease of the central nervous system explained the executive director for the Halton MS society Dorothy McDonald It interrupts the brains ability to control walking talking sight and other important functions MS is known as a mystery disease she said since there is no known cause or cure for it It every person differently One person may experience a numb ness in their leg which will go away and not come back for another 10 years while another person may become completely immobile and bedridden She said medical officers feel the disease is caused by a virus that may be contracted by individuals during puberty with the virus remaining dormant un til the person reaches the age group For people who suffer from MS in Halton the chapter provides educational literature serves as an advocate for them in obtaining services such as home care and helps them find money to fund equipment The chapters goal is to raise for MS this year of which the bulk goes to fund research about the disease Last year they raised For more information on the Halton Chapter of the Canadian Multiple Sclerosis Society con tact Dorothy McDonald at or in Georgetown Ms at 8776588