Alaska Blog IV- Bethel and the McCann Inhalant Abuse Treatment Center

About an hour flight west from Anchorage is the community of Bethel. It has a population of around 5,000 people and serves as a transportation and communication hub of the Yukon-Kuskowim river delta area. It is also the headquarters of Yukon Kuskokwim-Health Corporation (YKHC), another Alaska Native tribal health organization. It is similar in character and mission to the SEARHC, which I have previously described. It is perhaps twice the size of SEARHC and provides a broader array of health-related services. For example, they provide assistance to communities on water and sewer problems. Their CEO, Gene Peltola, is an impressive executive. Spending a day with him makes clear that he sees his mission as building communities, not just a medical organization.

I visited with Gene and several other community leaders at a YKHC facility on the outskirts of Bethel called the McCann Treatment Center. The building houses a truly unique program for boys and girls that have become addicted to inhaling substances. This program responds to what is truly a terrible problem. In many remote parts of Alaska, people, desperate to escape their lives, seek intoxication by inhaling gasoline, glue, aerosols or any number of other household products with ingredients capable of producing such an effect. These toxic products are used as a substitute for alcohol or other drugs, which are both expensive and not as readily available to youth in remote Alaska.

The existence of this problem is symptomatic of an epidemic of suicide in Alaska. In the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta, 13% of all deaths are from suicide. This is over four times the national average.

This little Center serves the entire state of Alaska and is perhaps unique countrywide. The population of patients is boys and girls under 18 years old. By my observation, the average age is much lower than 18. The director said that the population of residents continues to represent more and more severe problems coming at younger and younger ages.

I briefly attended two classes where I had a chance to meet the students. I want to be very careful not to compromise anybody’s privacy in the way I describe this, so I will just say it broke my heart. Seeing 14 to 16 year-old boys (there were not girls enrolled during my visit) who have clearly affected their long-term cognitive outlook was painful. Although I know they are getting help to move forward in a better way, the damage is already significant and there are many more who are not being served.

In a direct way, the scene paints a picture so many children in remote Alaska face. Alcoholism is everywhere. I’m told incest and other forms of abuse are prevalent. Children looking for an escape inhale toxic substances for relief and become hopelessly addicted.

One of the workers told me of a conversation she had with a young boy who said he couldn’t stay away from inhalants. His words, as she reported them, were poignant. “When I think about it,” he said, “I am like metal to a magnet.”

The Center is named the McCann Treatment Center after a man who stood in a town meeting with then Senator Frank Murkowski and, in desperation, pleaded for help with his grandson. The Senator knew there were thousands more like him and sought money to build the Center. It serves the few well, but the many continue in their quiet desperation, too many of them ending up as part of the 13% suicide rate.

Once the brain has been damaged by inhalation it is permanent. However, they can prevent further damage and prevent premature deaths. The students are provided with a small-class-size environment, and taught skills consistent with the subsistence lifestyle they live in their villages. For example, they have a fishing camp where they are taught to catch, process and dry fish.

I asked Jamie, the director of the Center, if the boys have trouble at that age being away from home for that long (the program can be as long as two years). He said that some of them struggle at first, but over time they begin to trust and open up. “They begin talking about the issues that motivated their destructive behavior in the first place. Watching them go through it is hard, but I love every one of these boys and I’m committed to helping them as best we can.”

Comments

Thank you to dare coming way up North and give a hand to the Communities

It is said that stimulus checks once more will be sent, could you Mr the Secretary propose to the admin to insert in the enveloppe a personnal memo from you to advise people to use as much of the money possible for preparedness in face of a crisis and provide documented informations so Communities, Family and Individuals understand the imperatives of doing so.

I believe it is an opportunity to provide informations that will reduce morbidity and mortality.

Heartfelt thanks for your Courage Mr the Secretary..

Achak

Posted by: Achak | August 06, 2008 at 09:35 PM

Representative Leavitt,

As a male I personally am shocked and outraged to learn that you support classifying contraceptives for females as 'abortion'. A singular egg left unfertilized is not viable and should you remember basic sex ed classes will not have the necessary DNA material to create life. Contraception is a preventative measure so that those who choose not to create a life will not need to have an abortion later on.

Where does this line of reasoning eventually end? If I happen to ejaculate in the middle of the night with a nocturnal emission am I subject to the same view that I am destroying life before it begins? No.. it's just sperm.

Surely you can see the flaw in this logic and I urge you to re-evaluate your stance on this issue. By classifying contraceptives for women as 'abortion' you are slowly treading down that slippery slope towards taking away essential liberties that all of us, man and women, are entitled to. We are the keepers of our own bodies, not the government.

Sincerely,

Brian H Leach II, Glendale CA

Posted by: Brian H Leach II | August 07, 2008 at 04:38 AM

Thank you so much for your blog. I'm from North Carolina. A couple of men that I go to church with went to some part of Alaska on a mission trip and I wondered why. Now, I see why. As a country we give sooo much to other countries. Why aren't we doing more here in the US. We need more publicity on the poverty in the US. I just accidently found this web site. Please publish the problems in Alaska country wide. Thank you so much. I will be checking back to see if anything will or can be done for these poverty stricken in Alaska. Thanks, Rhodella

Posted by: Rhodella Coleman | August 15, 2008 at 08:07 AM