Members of the Westlock & District Drug Task Force had their first meeting of the 2011/2012 season last week, and hope to continue supporting initiatives related to addictions and mental health in the community.
Initiatives the group has already made commitments to include supporting the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) at St. Mary School and following up on an initiative last year with the community’s hairdressers.
While the group is nominally dedicated to address drug-related issues in the community, the scope of its work has expanded since its inception nearly a decade ago.
The committee was set up seven years ago to address the rising use of methamphetamines in Alberta’s rural communities, according to co-chair Kendall Taylor, and it quickly became apparent the group was in a position to address a host of related issues.
“The drug task force was initially started to address drug and addiction-related issues in the community,” he said. “It was during a period of time when the methamphetamine issue was growing in Alberta.”
That developed over time when committee members became more aware of the connections between drug use and other community health issues in the Westlock area.
“People began to say that community health isn’t just the narrow issue of alcohol and drugs. Community health is a much broader topic about well being, about mental health, about business, it’s about a number of things,” Taylor said.
As such, the committee has looked to support other endeavours related to addictions and mental health.
Last year, for example, the task force hosted an informal social meeting for hairdressers and aestheticians in town.
These front-line service providers often develop friendly relationships with their clients, and while the personal information they hear remains strictly confidential, the task force sought to ensure they know of the various support services available in the community so they could communicate that to their clients.
“They end up talking to people not just about regular stuff, but also about some very serious topics,” Taylor said. “What we found was a lot of hairstylists felt deficient in their ability to have conversations about these very serious topics, but they were being given this information.”
The task force hosted a meeting to introduce these hairstylists to professional addictions and health services workers in the community so that they would know who they could refer their clients to.
Sherry Bjornson, the new outreach worker at the Hope Resource Centre, said that although she was not yet working in town when that meeting happened, she has heard a lot of positive feedback.
“The more public awareness we can do about community issues, the better,” she said.
The committee hopes to host a followup evening with hairstylists this year, as well as hosting one for financial professionals to provide them the information, as well.
The committee has also provided funding to send SADD members to conferences, and also helped to bring Dr. Martin Brokenleg to town earlier this year to give a talk about promoting resiliency in youth.
An ongoing challenge for the group, however, is securing funding for its activities. It has historically been reliant upon yearly $5,000 grant through Alberta’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC). That organization has now been take over by Alberta Health Services and the funding is more difficult to secure, Taylor said.
Regardless, the task force is in a relatively good financial position at the moment and has the ability to continue to support community health in the Westlock area.
The next meeting is scheduled for noon on Nov. 17 at St. Mary School, and is open for anyone to attend.
