There is a line that Envision counsellors use often enough that pretty well sums up their take on the liquor and drug consumption levels in the Estevan area.
"Alcohol and drugs are the excuse, not the reason," said Patt Lenover-Adams, the lead supervisor for an ever-expanding counselling regime at Envision Counselling and Support Centre which provides services to hundreds of people who require assistance in one form or another, including problems associated with liquor.
Lenover-Adams said Envision clients have increased in volume over the 20 years the service has been available, more so in the past 10 years. She said that might be attributed to the fact that more people are becoming aware of what is offered by Envision as well as a natural growth in population with many having a disconnection with the community.
Victims of abuse and violence have grown in numbers over the past 10 years, with the average age of the victims going down, meaning the victims are younger than they were in 2003. That might also be a good thing because it indicates that more young people are aware of Envision and what it offers in a crisis situation.
A new program of family intervention helps the community's social services network fill the gaps in services.
"There are some families in a crisis who need help right now. That's where Envision can step in. We're getting more calls due to word-of-mouth contacts as well as from police, mental health and schools," said Lenover-Adams. The program stretches out to include Weyburn and Carlyle.
The Envision vision began over 20 years ago and included three people and a modest $136,000 budget. It now embraces 38 professional staff with four administrative positions, two office support staffers, eight counsellors, 12 family support employees and two outreach workers.
Just like other services in the city, Lenover-Adams said recruitment and retention becomes an issue "due mainly to the housing issues we have in this city."
Those who are seeking help connect to Envision not only through their crisis hot line to handle abusive situations, but in a variety of other ways. Most often, the victims and even the perpetrators have a feeling of disconnection in the communities in which they are living.
"They work longer hours in the oilpatch. They don't integrate easily into the community because of the nature of their work and the hours they keep. They don't get engaged in the volunteer community or a church community or a regular social circle because they're out in the patch. They can't come in at 1 p.m. for an appointment," she said.
An oil workers intervention program is one concept in the development stage, but to make it successful, the services must be available after regular hours and on weekends, Lenover-Adams said.
So far they're researching, assessing and gathering data through focus groups with the hope that funding will follow. So far Lenover-Adams sees it as a service that will "have to go where they are, not the other way."
Liquor and drugs become a problem because the oil workers who have come from other parts of the country don't have family or friends to call on, nor do their wives, girlfriends or boyfriends, so they gather in the bars because that's where the others will be.
The family program was originally funded for, and expected to help, up to 15 families in crisis situations. Last year they helped 147 families and will exceed that number this year.
"There is a culture in the oil industry, a stigma you might call it, that makes it difficult for them to come forward to seek help abused or abuser," said Lenover-Adams.
There are programs and people available to help, but if the victims aren't aware of them, then they don't know where to go to get help when a crisis arises and, she added, "sixty-four per cent of us access counselling support in their lifetime, so let's remove the stigmas and get on with our lives."
The emergency line calls to assist women in abusive situations remain stable at about 350 calls a year and has been at that level for about five years, she said. Where the growth is coming is from online contacts through the Envision Website where contact is up by 75 per cent. That means the support centre has to be ready to handle clients using newer technologies.
"The question becomes, 'who do I talk to after 5 o'clock?' " Lenover-Adams said.
Problems can compound with immigrant families and the desire to engage them when support is needed.
"When you're a growing agency like ours obviously is, adding programs is challenging because you have to find funding. Our main sources right now are government, United Way and community contributions. For instance, if an oil workers intervention program is going to work, we'd have to find support from within that industry because we don't charge any fees for services," said Lenover-Adams.
"We can't provide it without assistance and would want to provide this industry with after hours and weekend counselling because of the nature of the jobs and right now I'm not aware of any government stream of funding for that. So, it would have to be industry supported."
Family support programs get help from Social Services. When Social Services get a call for help, they'll often refer the client to Envision with a family support worker who might lend a hand with items that may be simple for some, but a big issue for others, such as helping with a family budget, solving a transportation dilemma, grocery shopping and learning how to "fight fair."
If the members of the family in crisis come from a background where there was little or no support, education or abilities to cope, then they arrive in Estevan with no real background in dealing with life's realities and they can become overwhelmed with common life skills issues. Without backup help they have nowhere to turn, unless they call on one of Estevan and area's counselling support systems, she said.
So yes, liquor is one of the problems but as the veteran counsellor pointed out there is help just a phone call or an e-mail away, but first the victim has to be aware of the fact that the people who can help them are out there and willing to assist.
