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Aurora Keswick The Second Section Sports News District News Entertainment ANKH an unusual experiment to aid youth in crisis Newmarkets Crisis Centre has been serving area young people without fanfare for more than three months Contrary to the opinions of some residents it is not a drug centre It is a help centre and handles practically every problem faced by young people today Com munity support through donations of money and materials has contribut ed to the centres success but as of now more help is needed to keep Introduction In Newmarket we have an unusual if not unique sen ice run by young people to meet the needs of other young people in crisis- Crisis Intervention Services are form ing in big cities but this one is set up in a suburbanrural setting covering a radius of 20 miles To all those con nected with it this service appears to meet these needs of youth more effec tively and at far less cost than any of the previous traditional methods This report describes the function of this clientorient service which attempts to be the significant features behind s success are described and com parisons with traditional helping agencies are made on a cost-effective- Historical Background In Jan uary at the public meeting on drug use by youth it had become apparent that a significant body of youth were experiencing various forms which they needed help to resolve but felt incapable of taking to existing caring agencies for fear of being reported to parents or police being rejected having to face war ranted or unwarranted moral or because they felt the help offered was inappropriate to their needs This was particularly so with respect lo drug use and the whole drug use subculture about which they felt the adult world was ignorant prejudiced The net result was a dangerous degree of ignorance on of drugs be- Some youth particularly am phetamine abusers were becoming very alienated not only from society tit even from their own subculture that they could not get effective help when they most needed It and forming small groups apparent hellbent on selfdestruction Further investigation among 2500 young people revealed that a very considerable proportion of all high school youth in the area had tried drugs more than once within the preceding six months mainly us but about per cent em were using derivatives fairly frequently and about five per were experiencing serious with amphetamines It also became readily apparent that one was primarily dealing with people problems of which drug youth at the unsophisticated reck- way into which teeny hoppers Grades were plunging into the and others in touch with the problem that a significant increase in drug use would occur this summer the centre is operation But this report is not a direct ap peal for help It tells what New markets Crisis Centre is It was compiled from the experiences and information gained over the past summer and all those connected with the staffs operation contrib uted to its preparation The report was correlated and written by the centres clinical director Dr John Denison which had to be tackled It was felt that it was incapable of solution by any one arm of the community but was a wholecommunity problem A basic threeprong approach was envisaged each interdependent de scribed as Preventative Educational and Therapeutic By methods which need not be described here key resource people were identified within the community and their aid enlisted to overcome community inertia Social Action Committees were formed comprised of youth plus adults and the active cooperation of police educators FORM COMMITTEE Under the auspices of the New market and Aurora Social Action Com mittees a Crisis Intervention Service Committee was formed to oversee the developing crisis intervention service This had originated as a joint project between one of the investigators and a group of concerned young people to establish a base from which a team of workers would operate to which youth in crises could feel free to go in confidence for help Considerable credence was given to their initial thinking by the publication of Look ers important paper from Montreal Community Approach Put briefly the Committee felt it was best meet an problem in an way It was felt imperative that a pilot scheme be rapidly inaugurated so the true extent and direction and indeed the nature of the problem could be established and from which hopeful ly it could learn new techniques for extending care to young people It was and has continued to be a prim ary aim that the service should be clientorientated fine available apparent that there lent illdefined in To give young people honest factual information about the drugs that they are or may try using To discourage wherever pos sible the use of drugs particularly the socalled hard drugs by young To have a and a service available run by staff to whom young people can relate to which they can To Intervene when asked in the crisis situation in whatever way seems most appropriate for the clients best interest to help wherever possible in the immediate situation and to enlist the help of the existing caring agencies for any further help where needed STAFF LOCATED The Hoard of Management of Vork County Hospital kindly and courageously put a large old house close to the hospital at our disposal The Addiction Research Foundation gave a considerable sum of money as a grant in aid towards running the crisis service and two dropin centres They also helped us to locate suitable young people who were interviewed jointly by the Committee and the I Crisis centre needs your help NEW I Despite the help of government grant the responsibility for the continued success of the Crisis Intervention Service lies with the community For the past three weeks the fiveperson stuff it the centre worked without pay and the program still is in dire need of financial and material support A spokesman said that besides money the centre needs refrigerator stove linen pillows blankets sheets towels cleaning materials kitchen utensils furniture and food i through Robert White young people from the Social Action Committees to staff the service Their sole qualifications were that they knew the drug scene well and were con cerned and experienced in handling life situations Grade 13 students and two young married men We also have an Ad ministrative Advisor and a family practitioner as Clinical Director To this nucleus are added several vol unteer helpers mainly exclients plus the services of five more physi cians including one urologist and one when necessary There Is a close liaison with the nearby hospital The staff selected a name for themselves which is the Egyptian word for Life and for which is the symbol Their aim is to offer a 24hour counselling and referral service lo youth in crisis The Committee decided that once the service was it would operate a deliberate policy and leave the staff to de termine and define crisis need etc as it felt best and that it would only intervene in the running of the service when asked or in the face of major problems It was felt that only by doing this plus frequent The workload since ils inception on June 1st has shown an interesting pattern There was an initial testing period during which many young people came to look help clean up and equip or pour scorn on the enter prise men there came a latent pe riod during which both and the subculture waited to see how the first few cases would he handled Once its credibility bad been estab lished its work load began to rise steadily and Is continuing to do so Fart of the first two weeks was spent hi visiting local schools to bold informal rap sessions between students and the statf while at one school the Clinical Director was invited to have a similar session with the teachers The staff were also busy making themselves known to the local police hospital emergency department Pub- I lo youth Health I ally A joint presentation by the staff plus the Crisis Committee was also made to York County Health and Welfare Committee at which they re ceived the enthusiastic backing of Aid Public Health Child and Family Court Probation Service and Attendance Officers Time was also spent in equipping the house sorting out administrative detail and In getting to know one another and thrashing out their own ideas When people have to work so closely to gether In very Intense situations this Is an Important prodromal stage In deed one of our staff bad to be re A van was also obtained to act as transport for youth in need Present Form of Service Ankh Crisis Intervention Service operates hours a day Staff on duty sleep on the premises when they can usually in people congregate The area served is the northern half of York County some 75000 population in all Clients are referred in the fol lowing Ways Selfreferral By friends and relatives By the police By Childrcns Aid By Hospital Emergency De- pa rlment By Child and Family Court By local physicians The majority of clients seen are handled by the staff directly and do not require any other professional help This may involve a scries of individual or group counselling ses sions specific talking down and re assurance after bad trips The phy sician on call may occasionally have to give as a downer Sometimes all the help needed is food and a mattress to steep on until morn ing when the client can get home or to a friends For the more acutely agi tated paranoid reaction to bad trips they may even need to stay two or three days before they are fit to rc- Thcse arc the eases which often do very badly in hospital or jail because the pressure of Establishment fig ures enhances their paranoid feelings anil may even encourage aggressive NOT JUST DRUGS About per cent of all clients seen do not have drug problems at all but have various personal problems eg rows with parents or guardians thrown out or locked out of home no money and nowhere to live out of work worries about pregnancy or Some clients come or telephone ask advice and information about the drugs they are or intend to use Some repeatedly because its the only plate where they feel accepted and have the opportunity to sit and think on neutral territory to work through own problems in identity Some clients require legal ad vice others advice on their rights as wards of Aid others who need medical checkups but are fright ened to go to their own doctors These arc referred to the appropriate agency Some clients arc referred to the Clinical for further assessment of their mentalemotional status because the staff feel they may in the daily logbook and on First- Contact Forms filled for each client who asks for specific help Casual callers far outnumber clients in crisis people calling to see friends find out where they are or professional callers from various disciplines who Hon and is heaviest towards the end of each week In a typical recent weekend 130 young people visited the service Of this were youths with acute drug problems six speed overdoses seven reactions to impur ities in drugs eg abdominal cramps Six of all these physicians Three girls sought advice and help about possible pregnancies two were under sixteen Two youths were seen with alcohol problems these arc much more common than one would think One client was seen in Newmarket Jail and transferred to the Psychiatric Unit after being seen by the staff who called in the physi cian on duty for the Service who diag nosed schzopbrcnia One case was re ferred from the Hospital Emergency Department CRISIS PROBLEMS Seventeen young people called on one night to talk about the drugs they were using Twentytwo of the total number were ongoing clients wishing further counselling or just contact with the staff Four young people spent one night crashing be cause they could not get home Eight others stayed because of serious per sonal problems at home Over telephone enquiries were received of which about one- third were about problems and the remainder were callers wishing to locate relatives or friends Also during this time two or the staff visited a park in North York and were invited to talk about drug abuse to a large group of young people The remainder of the callers were noncrisis young people calling to locate friends others to see the Service and some professional visi tors wishing to know more about or offer their services Significant Features Behind people drawn from within the peer group with an intuitive awareness and sensitivity as to how to act in any given crisis situationto remain cool and calm yet capable of switching from gentle objectivity to the fiercest moralizing in what can only be describ ed as remarkably plain and forthright language at the appropriate mo ments For the writer with specific training and experience in psycho therapy it has been a particularly enjoyable and humbling experience to see how expert these theoretical non professionals are in diagnosing and handling quite daunting crisis The house itself The large old doublefronted house has a warm welcoming ambience It is furnished with old chesterfields easy chairs and mattresses and the walls decorated with posters Anyone push ing open the front door and walk ing in feels welcomed and at ease The whole setting is probably a more therapeutic tool than one could credit and its only disadvantage Is S that to a few clients it has encouraged considerable degree of dependency Having animals in the house which can be picked up and stroked is often very comforting and reassur ing to someone on a bad trip or helpful to those who find it difficult to verbalise their own emotional lone liness and isolation For some the act of stroking and caressing the cat or dog has enabled them to verbalise their feelings HANDSOFF POLICY The deliberate handsoff policy of the Crisis Committee and the wholehearted cooperation of the vari ous caring agencies without any overt interference in its development These are factors which define its success mainly in terms of effec tiveness in relating to young people successfully created with which youth feels confidence How successful is it in handling crisis situations This is more difficult to assess because of the wide range of problems handled but we can break them down into broad groups Drug Accidents bad trips in acid unpleasant terrifying hallucinating or illusogenic experi ences and unpleasant physical effects from over dosages with amphetamines or from impurities in the drug taken These are handled 100 per cent effec tively minimum disturbance and hardly ever need physicians at tendence or hospitalization This com pares very favorably to the dislocation caused to an emergency department or hospital ward at a fraction of the cost either financially or in terms of physiciannurse time and energy Drug Addiction This is virtu ally limited to amphetamine abusers mid one or two heroin addicts They are extremely difficult to treat and review of results of the various clinics in Toronto and North America sug gest that with the possible exception of and California Rehabilita tion Center less than 10 per cent cure rate after one year Is usual Ankh is a crisis service not equipped to carry out any long term therapy and it is too soon to assess its value if any In this role but it is noteworthy that many addicts do keep returning to and that they are combining this with very real attempts to either stay off their drugs or cut down Personal problems family rows etc Of this very varied group about 80 per cent of the immediate problems arc resolved satisfactorily Getting people who urgently need but have refused medical aid eg hepatitis VI pregnancy per Objections Is the service being used by some young people for purely Continued on page 29 have specific mental illness TREATMENT ions local authorities Anonymity for clients Is respect- that many times only their first or pseudonym is known The given by the client is recorded ankh crisis a intervention service I I 636 drive east of the hospital newmarkst 895 2371