Charges point to ‘Wild West’ of addiction treatment
Uncredentialled ‘doctors’ highlight lack of oversight
The website for Addiction Canada’s drug rehab centres says patients are cared for by “fully licensed and certified treatment professionals.”
But the Ontario Provincial Police alleged last week that two employees at one of the company’s facilities were passing themselves off as doctors when they did not have the credentials.
Experts say the case highlights how Canada’s private addiction treatment industry is largely unregulated and how families need to carefully screen providers before shelling out tens of thousands of dollars.
“Right now there isn’t a sheriff in town,” said Robert Eves, director of strategic partnerships and knowledge mobilization at the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. “We don’t have controls in place to know if people aren’t (providing quality care). There isn’t a way to identify that and deal with it, not systematically.”
According to Detective Staff Sgt. Dorian Dwyer of the OPP’s health fraud investigation unit, police learned two people at the Addiction Canada treatment centre in Caledon were identifying themselves as medical doctors, but neither was licensed to practice medicine in Ontario.
One employee was charged with personation and fraud under the Criminal Code. The other was charged under the Health Professions Act for using the title “doctor.” The charges have not been proven in court.
John Haines, the CEO and founder of Addiction Canada, which operates five facilities across Ontario and Alberta, did not respond to requests for comment. The company claims on its website that it is the “LARGEST ‘fully private’ treatment organization in the country” and boasts a 65to 85-per-cent success rate using a “completely holistic program!”
The website claims the organization is “fully accredited” and has been recognized with a World Accreditation Addiction Treatment Mark of Excellence (WAATME) seal.
WAATME described itself last fall as a new accrediting organization and a subsidiary of Old West Healthcare Partners in Wyoming. Its website states addiction treatment providers can receive its “distinguished” seal of approval in “THREE EASY STEPS”: declare they are not funded or influenced by pharmaceutical companies, complete a 1.5-hour online course, and pay a fee.
Russ Pickering, president of the Canadian Council of Professional Certification (CCPC), one of a handful of Canadian bodies that provide voluntary certification to addiction counsellors, said some of the information on Addiction Canada’s website is misleading and he has previously asked that the CCPC logo be removed from it, but to no avail.
“I’m at a loss as to what to do with them,” he said.
The lack of mandatory accreditation for treatment facilities and certification for addiction counsellors is a real problem, said Colleen Dell, research chair in substance abuse at the University of Saskatchewan.
“The thing that concerns me the most is that when an individual or their family is looking for treatment services, they are often in a state of desperation. It is a crisis time,” she said in an email. “So when someone says to you what you want to hear, ‘Yes, we can help and we will do a good job at it,’ that is what you hold on to and don’t tend to ask too many questions.”
The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse is currently working with a half-dozen Canadian accrediting bodies and a half-dozen certification bodies to promote better oversight of the addiction treatment industry, Eves said.
While certification of addiction counsellors is still only voluntary, it is his hope that parties can reach an agreement soon on nationalized standards for certification. The longterm goal is to work with provinces to set up regulatory and licensing colleges for addiction workers, similar to those for medical doctors.
However, a spokeswoman for the B.C. health ministry said creating a regulatory college for this profession could be challenging because of the “diversity of philosophical approaches, entry requirements and practice standards” among counselling groups.
A spokesman for the Ontario health ministry said regulation of addiction counsellors is “not currently under consideration.”
Experts say it is incumbent upon families searching for treatment providers — who can charge anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000 per month — to question them about their qualifications and to ask for evidence that supports their treatment practices.
Until more stringent regulations are in place, “you can hang up a shingle and call yourself a drug and alcohol counsellor, there’s nothing in the law that prevents them,” said Tom Gabriel, a retired Toronto police officer and president of the Canadian Addiction Counsellors Certification Federation, another certification body.
“It’s like the Wild West.”