Drugs: Help and Referral

INFORMATION AND REFERRAL CENTRE OF GREATER MONTRÉAL (IRCGM)

Annual Report of Drugs: Help & Referral April 1st, 2016 to March 31st, 2017

Registered charity number # 10689 5840 RR001

Information and Referral Centre of Greater Montréal (IRCGM) 3155 Hochelaga Street, suite 101 Montréal (Québec) H1W 1G4

Telephone: 1-800-265-2626 Fax: (514) 527-9712 E-mail: dar@info-reference.qc.ca

Web site: drogue-aidereference.qc.ca 211 Web site: 211.qc.ca

Credits: Graphic Design: Renée Champagne Printing: Sisca Translation: Maria Rigas

Helping Through Information

…For 60 years!

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Drugs: Help and Referral

Attentive listening for 25 years

drugs: Help and referral (dHr) turned 25 this year. Since 1992, more than

600,000 people have used this province-wide service, available 24 hours per

day, 365 days per year. men and women having lost control of their use of

substances (drugs, alcohol, prescribed or non-prescribed medication), worried

parents, powerless partners, counsellors seeking specialized resources, all

received an answer to their requests for help, support, information and refer-

ral. a team of 13 counsellors trained in addiction, mental health and crisis

intervention, respond to various needs on a daily basis with professionalism

and without judgment. each person calling dHr will receive a warm recep-

tion, attentive listening, unwavering support, precise information, as suitable

referrals.

for a little history, we remind you that in 1990, the Bertrand report was ta-

bled with the ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) of Québec.

the group led by mr. mario Bertrand, had the mandate from the mr. robert Bourassa govern-

ment to present a clear picture of the substance abuse situation in Québec. one of the report’s

recommendation was to “ … implement an information and referral helpline available 24/7.”

It is therefore in april 1992, at the request of the MSSS, that the Information and referral Centre

of Greater montréal (IrCGm) inaugurated the province-wide drugs: Help and referral (dHr)

helpline. to this day, dHr is still managed by IrCGm and funded by the MSSS. It is a telephone

service that is human, free of charge to the Québécois population, bilingual, anonymous and

available 24/7. In 2016–2017, the dHr team answered 15,058 calls, tirelessly offering:

Support… • to addicts going through psychosocial or suicidal crises;

• to parents of adolescents experimenting with drugs;

• to parents of adolescents abusing drugs;

• to parents of adults addicted to drugs;

• to partners of at-risk addicts;

• to people having chosen the path of sobriety but the cravings are too hard.

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Information…

• on different types of drugs used in 2017;

• on withdrawal symptoms of various drugs;

• on resources offering rehabilitation, therapy or social reinsertion;

• on help that is available to friends and family of addicts: parents,

children, partners, employees, etc.

Referral…• towards public rehabilitation centres for addicts (Crd);

• towardscertifiedinpatientaddictionrehabilitationcentres;

• towards support groups for addiction;

• towards mental health resources;

• towards crisis centres;

• towards centres for suicide prevention.

ThecounsellorsatDHR,forthemostpart,havecompletedcertificatesinsubstanceabuseand

holdbaccalaureatesinoneofthefollowingfields:psychology,criminology,socialwork,special

education,multi-disciplinebaccalaureatescombiningcertificatesinmentalhealth,youthinter-

vention, violence, victims and society or a deC in correctional intervention, etc. We also have four

members of the team who are enrolled in the master’s program (one of whom is nearing the end)

for substance abuse intervention at the Université de Sherbrooke, longueuil campus.

In addition, all counsellors who begin working at dHr receive a 200-hour training in a 1/1 ratio

setting. this “in house” training includes: theory on addiction, concepts of co-dependency,

interventions during psychosocial or suicidal crises, interventions with loved ones of an addict,

interventions with youth, as well as, an overview of the different treatment approaches, an intro-

duction to the basics of the motivational Interviewing approach and mental health problems;

specificallypersonalitydisorders.Thistrainingalsoincludesapresentationofthedifferentareas

of Québec and their main cities, the Crd’s that serve them, how to use the iCarol database, as

wellas,variousreferraltools:books,scientificstudies,researchpapers,etc.

Allourinterventionsaredonewithoutjudgment,filledwithempathy,withconfidencethatthe

caller will be able to face his problems, provided we offer the proper tools for him to do so, hope

and accurately transmitting information and referrals.

A DHR counsellor

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In 25 years of existence, dHr has helped 628,521 people. during this 25thfiscalyeartheteam

answered more than 15,000 people: of these, 5% were anglophones. the service received zero

complaints.

Source of Requests In 2016–2017, almost 66% of callers had a substance abuse problem: of these users, 42 % were

women and 58 % were men. this year, we can observe similar number of calls from members of

family and friends. We would like to see this number increase even more in the coming years and

have undertaken actions for that to happen in 2017–2018. Counsellors and professionals from

the private and public sectors accounted for 6% of calls. of the total number of calls, a little more

than 98% were adults, a little more than 1% were seniors and less than 1% were adolescents

or children.

Gender of users

Men

58 %Women

42 %

Users

66.1 %

Source of requests

Friends & Family

26.6 %

Private and public sectors

7 %Others

0.3 %

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Substances mentionedSubstances primarily mentioned during the calls, by descending order, are: alcohol, cocaine (at

times with alcohol, by IV or crack), cannabis (at times with alcohol), amphetamines, nicotine,

prescribed medication, GHB, rohypnol, ecstasy, heroin (either by IV or not), ketamine, magic

mushrooms, steroids, mescaline or phencyclidine (PCP), as well as, solvents.

Geographical source of callsDuringthepastfiscalyearatDHR,closeto43%ofcallswerefromMontréal,15%fromMonté-

régie, 6% from the Capitale-nationale, over 7% from laurentides, more than 4% from laval and

mauricie-Centre-du-Québec, more than 6% from lanaudière (an increase of 2%) and more than

2% from estrie; the other 8 areas share about 13% of calls.

Geographical source of calls

0 10 20 30 40 50

43,1% 15,1%

7,3%

6,0%

5,9%

4,4%

4,2%

2,4%

2,4%

2,2%

2,1%

1,5%

1,0%

1,0%

0,6%

0,6%

0,1%

Montréal

Montérégie

Laurentides

Capitale-Nationale

Lanaudière

Laval

Chaudière-Appalaches

Estrie

Outaouais

Centre-du-Québec

Mauricie

Saguenay-Lac St-jean

Abitibi-Témiscamingue

Bas-Saint-Laurent

Côte-Nord

Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine

Nord-Du-Québec

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Types of requests

• Specificinformationonaddiction,substances,withdrawal,prevention,aswellas,ontheDHR

service accounted for 42% of calls.

• Inpatient rehabilitation made up 23% of calls.

• listening and support for addicts, partners, loved ones and parents made up 14% of calls.

• other related problems such as mental health, shelter, psychosocial and suicidal crisis man-

agement, violence, gambling, legal services, etc. accounted for more than 12% of calls.

• Support groups accounted for 6% of calls.

• Medicalandnon-medicaldetoxificationaccountedfor4%ofcalls.

• lastly, 1% of calls were about social reinsertion, sterile equipment, substitution treatments

and support during relapse.

37 %

Type of needs

Out-patient therapy

8 %

Related request and problematics

12 % medical/non-medical

detoxification

4 %

Support groups

6 %

In-patient Therapy

15 %

Listening and support

14 %

Specific information

42 %

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Transfer of knowledge activitiesIn 2016-2017, the coordinator of the service, Hélène Hamel, either participated, or assisted in

several events:

• Conference by the association canadienne pour la santé mentale (aCSm), entitled Économies,

Société et Santé Mentale : repensons la richesse ;

• Seminar by rISQ (Recherche et intervention sur les substances psychoactives—Québec), entitled

Dépendance et entourage : innovation et enjeux pour la pratique ;

• Journées annuelles de santé publique (JASP) 2016 : Légalisation de la marijuana : défis, tendances

et perspectives ;

• Conference organized by le centre d’écoute Le Havre ;

Continuous trainingmembers of the drugs: Help and referral (dHr) team care deeply about perfecting their knowledge

intheaddictionfield,whetheritisoncomorbidity,newsubstances,theBillonthelegalizationof

cannabis or innovation in the practice of intervening with an addict’s loved ones.

thus, this year, the dHr counsellors assisted in several training sessions in various areas:

• Cross training at the douglas mental Health University Institute:

- Consommation, santé mentale et délinquance ;

- Santé mentale, consommation et inaptitude.

• 30e Rencontre nationale des intervenants en réduction des méfaits organised by the Association

des intervenants en dépendance du Québec (AIDQ)

• Conference by COSMO-EMPIR entitled Cocaïne, prise de risque et santé mentale.

• training given by the aIdQ on Intervention en dépendance dans un contexte de concomitance

d’un problème mental (modules I and II).

• Conference by the AIDQ entitled À propos de la conduite avec facultés affaiblies.

• Several counsellors received training given by GRIP-Montréal :

- Démystifier la légalisation du cannabis ;

- Substances psychoactives et performance ;

- Sexualité et substances psychoactives.

• training within the program made in collaboration with the Université de Sherbrooke/AIDQ :

- La toxicomanie et la santé mentale cognitive de nos aînés.

as we can see, concern for mental health is becoming more and more present in the training that is

givenwhichaccuratelyreflectsthecallers’profiles,inwhomcomorbidityispresentforalotofthem.