Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2006)
4 Smoke Signals JUNE 15,2006 Tribe, Community Continue To Learn How To Cope With Meth Use One of the problems of dealing with meth use is that recovery time for an addict is five times longer than the longest available treatment. By Ron Karten There is no medicine, no therapy for children who are born addicted to methamphetamines, said Jim Lace, M.D., a Salem pediatrician. At a community meeting held in the Tribal Community Center on Wednesday, April 26, Lace ad dressed the tragedies that meth abuse can bring into the home. "We don't have any good medica tions to help babies withdraw," he said. "They have to go through withdrawal by themselves." "We still don't know what will happen to these babies when they grow up," he added, although "stud ies are starting." Lace is a member of the Meth Task Force for the Oregon Medi cal Association. As seriously as he takes meth addiction, he also has a sense of humor about his health care efforts: he works with a physi cians' group called, CHAOS (Child Health Association of Salem). While the difficulties of working with meth-troubled individuals is well-known, the details of the epi demic bear repeating: that 90 percent of kids taken out of homes are taken out because meth use has created unsafe situations within the home; that 95 percent of ID theft cases are traced back to meth users. The more difficult issues of treat ment and incarceration also came up during the meeting. Tribal Council member Kath leen Tom asked what the Tribe is doing to provide addicts with long 1 - " vy mi) mi I 0 ,- y' Community Interest With Dr. Jim Lace at right, community members watched a Powerpoint presentation during the meth meeting. term treatment. "It's a double-edged sword," said Tribal Social Services Manager Dave Fullerton. While medical and social service practitioners believe that "it takes five years to get clean," said Fullerton, current federal law allows only 12 months for parents to clean up once their children are taken from the home for foster care. If parents are showing progress, the. timeline can be extended. Normally, though, after 12 months, courts are required to make permanent place ments for the children. "It's a huge problem for par ents," said Fullerton, particularly because "the relapse is part of the recovery." The average addict has six to nine relapses on the way to recovery, he said. The Tribe has transitional hous ing in McMinnville and Portland, and "ultimately, we will have one here in Grand Ronde," said Ful lerton. But the average treatment course is only six to eight months. "There are very few statewide facilities that provide longer treatment. 'The Siletz Tribe," he said, "just opened a fa cility for mothers with children. It's a recovery house, similar to what we will have here in GR. From treatment into a community house. It has shown success be cause it doesn't put you back in the community you left, and provides support for you. You're still in a structured en vironment." "Conventional treat ment for alcohol has not proved successful with meth," said Ful lerton. The alcohol standard treatment al lows 21 days for recov ery. "The only thing showing any light at end of the tunnel for meth are the treat ment methods used for cocaine addicts." The Tribes recently hired Joe Martineau (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Fond du Lac Band) as its Meth Treatment Coordinator for the Tribe's local program. (See sto ry below) "We got funded through an ANA (Administration for Native Americans) grant to provide post treatment services which may in clude a recovery or transition hous ing in Grand Ronde," Martineau said. "We would be looking to move forward with that in August." H The Wisdom Of Three Elders Brought "Finding my identity" was key to his own recovery. To Joe Martineau By Ron Karten Joe Martineau, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Fond du Lac Band, is Post Treatment Services Coordinator for the Tribe's upcoming meth treatment facility. His role will be to work with new ly hired counselor Chris Holiday in a program that provides extend ed services for Tribal members recovering from meth addiction. "After my own recovery I made a commitment to give back and work within the helping field," said Martineau, now in his 19th year of recov ery. "The key to my recovery," he said, "was find ing my identify and incorporating my culture into my recovery program. The Native American healing aspect of my re covery is what saved me. "During my treatment I was lucky enough to meet three differ ent Native American healers." "When I went through, and start ed searching, I found a lot of walls that came up. People were telling me what I was doing was wrong, a lot of fear-based teachings. That scared me from looking further into my culture. These three Elders helped me look at things without fear and brought me through cer emonies and helped me incorporate Native American healing into my 12-step program. "After a lot of years, I became one of the helpers and teachers that helped me. That made t ' X- personality." Before he quit, he said, he was addicted to both alco hol and other drugs. His father was killed in 1960 in an alcohol-related car accident, and the week before he moved to Grand Ronde, he lost a niece and a nephew to overdoses. "Our children need a future," he said, "and they need as many of us to understand and not condemn them." "All children are susceptible to "T4ie thing that I think will help the children the most through our culture, is to instill in them cultural values to strengthen family, because family is most important." Joe Martineau, Post Treatment Services Coordinator my iden tity even stronger. Today, I believe that it's so impor tant to mix our Native American healing and culture into our heal ing program. Martineau has worked within the Minnesota Native American community in many different pro grams as a counselor and cultural resource person. Although he has never done meth ("Meth wasn't a popular drug when I quit," he said), I have an addictive peer pressure and experiment ing and other ways where drugs will be tempting to them. The thing that I think will help the children the most through our culture, is to instill in them cul tural values to strengthen family, because family is most important in instilling the value that they are worth more than going down that road. "Once they get into meth abuse, our communities have to under stand that it's so powerful that we have to work as a community and help them. I believe that our children are our future and this is a really powerful problem we are fac ing with meth. It can permanently damage these people's brains in the future." Martineau comes from a large family back home in Minnesota. He spent 13 years in non-Indian foster homes before the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act that has tried to see that Native children receive Native foster care place ments when pos sible. "My identity and self-esteem were gone when I returned to the reservation. I turned to drink ing and drugs until I went into treatment and got help. The great est part of my help was finding my identity and where I fit in." Martineau has two daughters in college in Minnesota, and, he said, "Both doing very well." While the program continues to look for a recovery house in the area, Martineau is busy now con tracting bed space for people who might need help right now, as well as helping with counseling and referring. For those in need, contact Mar tineau at 503-879-1690.
