Needed: Treatment Programs for Dual Diagnosis

Nova Scotia needs to set up and develop treatment programs to treat those with dual diagnosis. Meaning those who have a mental illness and the disease of addiction.

To my knowledge there is only one treatment program in our province that targets this special population. I think that it is located in Halifax.

Why do we need such a program?

Treating dual diagnosis is very complicated and involved. To treat the mental illness alone would not successfully help the person recover. To treat the addiction alone would not successfully help the person recover. Both problems need to be treated simultaneously.

There are three main aspects to the disease of addiction. Mental, physical, and spiritual. The mental part is the unrelenting obsession to use drugs and alcohol. The persons whole thought life is focused on using.

The physical part is once a drug is in the persons system the person develops a physical compulsion to continue using. Once the drug is out of their system they go through a severe craving. Their body needs more drugs.

The spiritual part has to do with self-centered, self-absorbed, self-seeking, and self-willed thinking and behaviour. Their thought life is completely focused on themselves. They very seldom think about others.

Mental illness is even more complicated than addiction. When a person is experiencing psychosis they are not living in reality. They are hallucinating, suffering from delusions, their thoughts are very disorganized. They are living in their own little world completely cut off from what is going on around them.

So, if you treat the addiction alone the person still suffers the symptoms of their mental illness. If you treat the mental illness alone the person still suffers the symptoms of their addiction.

Because of this both disorders need to be treated at the same time.

This is why we need special programs to treat those with dual diagnosis.

Consumers, and the family members of consumers should get together, get organized, and start some real serious advocating on behalf of consumers to get treatment programs set up to treat those with dual diagnosis.

Because this is a real major problem amongst the consumer population. You would be surprised if you knew how many consumers have dual diagnosis. I don't know the exact statistics but there are many many consumers out there that have this problem.