Regulate drug treatment centres, Alta. MLA urges
CBC News | Posted: October 26, 2010 1:34 AM | Last Updated: October 26, 2010
An Alberta opposition MLA called on the health minister Monday to start regulating private addiction treatment centres in light of recommendations from a fatality inquiry into the death of 17-year-old Taylor Argent.
"Will the minister today issue an apology to the Argent family and commit to implementing minimum standards in these addiction treatment centres across the province immediately?" NDP MLA Rachel Notley asked in the Alberta legislature.
Argent died in a privately run facility in Red Deer in April 2007 when staff failed to get him immediate medical aid after he drank antifreeze.
Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky said the government is currently looking at accrediting public facilities but made no commitment to changing standards in private centres.
"Perhaps as part of that, we can also look at how we can work more closely with the private facilities, who probably have accreditation or licensing or some sort of an agreement perhaps through United States standards," Zwozdesky said.
Inquiry finds staff 'woefully unprepared'
In 2007, Kim and Mike Argent tried getting their son into a publicly funded addictions centre when they discovered he had become addicted to cocaine.
When they were turned down, they enrolled him in a five-week, $10,000 program at the private Central Alberta Recovery Centre. He came out ready to start over but soon relapsed and was brought back to the centre.
A fatality inquiry held in June 2010 found that Taylor drank antifreeze he had found in an unlocked garage. That night, staff noticed him repeatedly falling down, stumbling and urinating on the bathroom floor before passing out on his bedroom floor with his feet on the bed.
Staff only called for medical help when Argent could not be awakened the next morning.
"They left him there," said Mike Argent. "They left him there for hours and hours."
In the inquiry report released earlier this month, provincial court Judge J. A. Hunter concluded no one had checked to see if the garage where Taylor got the antifreeze was locked.
The person watching Taylor overnight had first aid training but was "woefully unprepared to deal with anything out of the ordinary," Hunter wrote.
"It was heart-wrenching, you know, to hear that Taylor's life meant so little to everybody," said Kim Argent.
Only Quebec requires accreditation
Hunter also found there is no oversight of private treatment facilities in Alberta; no minimum standards to follow; and no one inspecting them. He recommended the province set up minimum standards for care in all such facilities and inspect them regularly.
"To see that the government had allowed this addiction centre to operate with so little professionalism and consistent application of standards for care — let alone basic safety — is concerning to me," Notley said.
Since the inquiry into Taylor's death, the CBC has learned there are no national standards for drug and alcohol treatment centres. Quebec is the only province that requires private centres to be accredited.
Other provinces don't, and as a result, many treatment centres choose not to go through the lengthy process of accreditation.
"If there isn't a mandate, you often see organizations choosing not to be accredited, because, in all honesty, accreditation is a significant amount of work," said Daniel Stavert with Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.
The Argents have started a charity in Taylor's memory raising money to send drug-addicted children and teens for treatment.