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Cynthia Anne Centre Sees Drug Problem in Youth

Monday, 15 April 2013 at 10:55

"There is no shame in having a problem. The only shame is when you let the problem have you." - Bill Baleka, Program Director with the Cynthia Anne Centre for Addictions. The Cynthia Anne Centre for Addictions has been operating in Oxford County for over a year-and-a-half-old now, and demand for their counselling has been rising steadily. They now run 60 sessions a month, seeing 20-30 people with a variety of addictions. Baleka tells Heart FM about the most prevalent addiction they are seeing in the community. "There is definitely an increase in the number of young people who have been turned onto getting high off medications. They say an average of 1-in-5 teenagers experience abusing medications." Baleka says youth are turning to drugs to cope with family and social pressures. "The economy has definitely had an impact...even with young people because at home they may experience their parents going through financial difficulties, it carries over into them, and how they feel about things. The pressures they feel at school, the desire to achieve, it just goes on and on." Baleka also attributes young people abusing drugs to peer pressures, or looking up to role models like athletes who have been caught doping, or "glorified" drug use in movies. The Cynthia Anne Centre is a free program to anyone over the age of 16 seeking help in battling an addiction through counselling. They hold both individual and group sessions, which Baleka says may not be for everyone, but they are here to help. "We're an alternative. We're not the be-all, end-all." The Centre, which is a branch of Operation Sharing, can be reached at: 519-421-4017 Email: bbaleka@hotmail.ca

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