A 30-day detoxification offers little hope to addicts if it is not followed up, the keynote speaker at the National Summer Institute on Addictions heard Monday.

Thomas McLellan, director of the Treatment Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, told the conference, being held this week in Stanhope, P.E.I., detox programs are only a starting point.

Detoxification is necessary, but only a first step, the conference was told.
(CBC)

"Detoxification is done as a preparation for treatment," McLellan said. "You can't really get new knowledge, new behaviours into someone who is delirious from having just been recuperating from using oxycontin or alcohol or combinations.

"So it's a very necessary part of treatment, but if you stop it, it's like giving someone emergency care for heart attack and then letting them go. It's silly, it's wasteful," he said.

Just like someone who has had a heart attack, said McLellan, addicts need to learn how to change their behaviours and lifestyle, and they need on-going support. Detox alone, he said, is an expensive and largely ineffective way to treat addictions.

"I suggest coupling a longer, probably mandated, outpatient periods of supervision, monitoring, engagement with the family, engagement with the employer, engagement with the criminal justice system," he said.

"Once you've spent the time and money for 30 days don't waste it. Keep it going."

Tom McClellan was the keynote speaker at the conference.
(CBC)

People have come to the conference from across Canada and from a wide range of backgrounds: researchers, counsellors, criminal justice and corrections officials, and social services workers. They hope to take what they've learned home and use it to improve the way they help those struggling with addictions.

Attendees from Prince Edward Island are also hoping the provincial government is listening.

P.E.I. is one of the few provinces without a plan to deal with addiction treatment in the long-term, a plan that involves co-operation from all the different professionals who work with addictions.

But organizers say P.E.I.'s new Liberal government under Premier Robert Ghiz seems interested in setting up a plan, including a special program for Island youth.

Lianne Calvert of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse is hopeful there will be change soon.

"We also have reason to believe that the new premier is interested in moving forward with strategy aimed at youth prevention and treatment," said Calvert.

Calvert said P.E.I. could draw on a wealth of knowledge and experience from other provinces to set up its own addictions strategy.