Saskatchewan Federation of Police Officers 155 Shining a light on the lived experience of addiction in Saskatchewan (continued) THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM Solving the drug problem, according to Sergeant Robin Wintermute of the Saskatoon Police Drug Unit, isn’t going to happen overnight. “Police aren’t going to arrest our way out of this,” he says bluntly. “We have 12 investigators and there’s no shortage of work. We need to continue building community partnerships and get at the root cause of the problem,” he says, citing poverty, racism, and unresolved trauma that need to be addressed. Constable Ingrouille agrees. As a self-professed harm-reductionist and founder of Say Know (a play on the abstinenceonly ‘say no’ approach that points instead to knowledge and understanding as the answer), Ingrouille believes people will eventually become non-users if more focus is placed on meeting the needs of the person first. That’s where Kara Fletcher comes in. “We have to dig deep and understand the whys of drug use and really be willing to listen, because it’s affecting all of us,” she says, especially since the pandemic has compounded mental health issues. “We need to shift our line of questioning from ‘Why the addiction?’ to ‘Why the pain?’” “In the first phase of a study I’m working on, funded by a Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation (SHRF) Establishment Grant, we found that in Saskatoon fewer youth aged 18 to 24 are attending mental health and substance abuse services compared to older cohorts,” Fletcher notes with concern. Through more interviews, the second phase of this study will help her to better understand their reasons for not attending these specialized programs. Fletcher’s compassion and unwavering drive to understand addiction have made her a soughtafter therapist and researcher working with individuals and families living with substance use disorders. Her research is centred on the fact that past trauma plays a huge role in addiction. “Renowned Canadian physician Dr. Gabor Maté says that developing an addiction is not a choice or a failure of will, but a response to human suffering and childhood trauma,” she says. “When you think about it, a person is self-medicating to deal with their pain and make it through another day, which is almost an act of strength to survive – and yet the addiction blows up in their face. We need to shift our line of questioning from ‘Why the addiction?’ to ‘Why the pain?’” TOUCHED BY ADDICTION Fletcher has always had an ability to connect with those who are suffering. She remembers when, growing up in rural Ontario, a fellow Grade 4 classmate was killed in a car accident. “I was the one taking these kids back and forth to the school counsellor to help process their pain,” she says. “I always knew from a young age that I wanted to help others.” After obtaining her Master’s of Social Work at Montreal’s McGill University, Fletcher worked with families and groups focusing on mentalhealth issues related to substance use. “That’s when I thought, ‘There’s very little research out there on substance use and relationships,’” she recalls. “It’s what prompted me to return to McGill and pursue my doctorate.” While Fletcher was working at an inpatient clinic for substance misuse, she recalls a fellow clinician telling her not to talk about past trauma. “I was horrified!” she recalls. “How on earth can we ignore trauma when that’s the crux of the issue?” So she developed her PhD thesis on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), working with couples where one partner presented with a substance addiction. “Usually, one partner is the helper-fixer who wants to go in and save the other,” she says. “I found that the current treatment structure over-focuses on substance use, where we really need to focus on the social context of the continued
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