McCann Inhalant Abuse Treatment Center— Follow up

From Secretary Mike Leavitt’s Blog, August 6, 2008

Mike Leavitt is the Secretary of Health and Human Services U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and in late July he toured a Western Alaska village to see first hand what problems some Native communities face today.

Along his scheduled tour, he paid a visit to the Yukon Kuskokwim-Health Corporation (YKHC), a tribal health organization. Located on the outskirts of Bethel, Alaska, a YKHC facility called the McCann Inhalant Abuse Treatment Center sits. Secretary Leavitt uses his blog to share his eye opening experience:

"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.”"