#bobmeehan

The directors of an embattled drug-and-alcohol abuse program for teenagers in Burnaby are calling for a government investigation into charges the program is a cult and has links to a controversial therapist in the U.S. 

Ken Hick, head of the board of the Breakaway Drug Abuse Society, said an investigation is the only way to prove that the program is independent and sound. 

“The allegation that we are aligned with something dark and mysterious in the States is absolute hogwash,” said Hick, a real-estate developer whose own son has taken the Breakaway program. 

He told a news conference he has not yet received any specifics of the complaints against Breakaway. 

Parents Complain 

“An investigation will verify that we are not of a cult nature,” he said. 

The Breakaway directors called the news conference after a group of parents with teenagers in the program went public with their complaint that their children’s dependency on drugs and alcohol had been replaced with a new dependency - on the Breakaway program. 

As well, the disgruntled parents said that the program’s counsellors act as recruiters for a high-priced residential program in California founded by controversial alcohol-and-drug counsellor Bob Meehan of San Diego. 

Breakaway was started in November 1986 by a group of parents in the Lower Mainland whose teenagers were abusing alcohol and drugs, and is based on Meehan’s 12-step program using peer counsellors. 

No Formal Link 

Hick said about one-quarter of Breakaway’s 75 clients were referred to Meehan’s programs. 

He said three Breakaway counsellors with past links to Meehan have now resigned. Meehan has made unpaid visits to Breakaway on three occasions, he said, but has no formal connection to the program. 

Asked about Breakaway’s success rate, Hick said about 10 of the 75 clients have been drug and alcohol free for at least a year. 

“We don’t have statistics,” he said. “That’s one thing we will have to get for this investigation.” 

One parent at the news conference, Steve Imbach, said he almost despaired of getting help for his two sons until he found Breakaway. 

“Breakaway has given our family serenity again,” he said. “It has given us back sober kids.” 

Breakaway originally recieved a $32,000 start-up grant from B.C. government, but recently the health ministry and the provincial alcohol-and-drug programs stopped referring clients to its program after receiving about 10 complaints parents and teenagers. 

The ministry said it does not recognize the program’s counsellors, who are all recovered addicts, because they’re not academically qualified. 

Meanwhile, a report from the ministry of labor and consumer services, which runs the province’s alcohol-and-drug programs, questions some of the therapy methods used on teenagers involved in the program. 

“The Breakaway program makes no provisions for developing life skills to enable clients to live normal lives after termination of ‘therapy,’“ states the report written by University of B.C. psychologist Donald Dutton. 

The report states that two clients he interviewed describe “disturbing elements of the Breakaway program.”