What is NNADAP?

The National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP) is a Community Program administered by the Community Programs Directorate, under the Mental Health and Addictions Division of the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch.

The Community Programs Directorate works in partnership with First Nations and Inuit to deliver a wide range of programs in key community health sectors. All CPD activities have as their goals to maintain and improve the health of First Nations and Inuit, and to facilitate First Nations and Inuit control of health programs and resources.

The National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP) is the primary, federal funding source for services designed to prevent and overcome alcohol and drug abuse problems in the communities of First Nations and Inuit peoples.

Program revenue support for NNADAP policy development and service quality monitoring are primarily administered by First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (recently renamed from the former "Medical Services Branch") of Health Canada. That process is carried out through a national office and regional infrastructure throughout the country.

Direct NNADAP service delivery is undertaken by First Nations' communities and treatment programs, mostly in-patient, and typically delivered jointly by groups of First Nations through incorporated management structures.

The treatment programs are available to all First Nations people throughout the country but, in the vast majority of cases, clients participating in them are drawn from various resident locations within each of the First Nation and Inuit health service regions. Limitations on access to programs outside the Region are set by a policy that requires that clients must access the program closest to their residence that has bed space vacancies available at the time of an intake request.

Program History

The history of NNADAP originates in a national pilot project implemented on a preliminary basis in the mid-1970s. Operated at the outset as a joint program of the (then named) Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) and the (then) Department of National Health and Welfare, the National Native Alcohol Program (NNAP) continued for five years beyond its initial 3-year mandate as a demonstration project.

A proposal for a permanent program was submitted to and approved by the (Federal) Treasury Board in 1981-82. A permanent program to inclusively address alcohol and drug problems and to be called the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP) was needed, argued the proposal:

  • to establish certainty in the program;
  • to reduce staff turnover related to that uncertainty, and
  • to establish a program that could be integrated and co-ordinated with other programs which would, together, promote community health and environments dominated by sober lifestyles.

The alcohol and drug abuse program was actually established as a permanent program prior to such major community development initiatives as Pathways, the Native Economic Development Program (NEDP), self-government legislation, and the community-based health services transfer initiative.

As the General Review of NNADAP stated, NNADAP was established and given permanency because of the "urgent and visible nature of alcohol and drug abuse among First Nations and Inuit people."

The program was conceived in the initial submission to Treasury Board as comprising the following elements:

  • non-medical treatment services, as well as post-treatment services such as half-way houses and outpatient services;
  • prevention and maintenance activities, including professional and paraprofessional counselling; community education; self-help groups; and complementary services, such as support groups for those afflicted and for their families;
  • personnel training support;
  • research and development;
  • regionally-based Indian and Inuit institutions to provide technical assistance, training, research, planning, coordination, service evaluation and funding.

The following potential program elements were excluded from the original program proposal:

  • primary prevention (with the exception of health education and financial and technical assistance to help in leveraging the support of other programs to mount comprehensive community prevention strategies)
  • medical services were not directly included;
  • medical and non-medical detoxification was not directly funded;

Further, professional counselling services in communities was excluded, despite the fact that such services were included as basic program elements in the original program conception, as it was proposed to Treasury Board.

The Contents of NNADAP

NNADAP now supports an infrastructure managed and delivered by First Nations and Inuit communities and organizations throughout Canada. That infrastructure includes:

  • 49 treatment centres, housing 695 treatment beds and outpatient services providing non-medical, post-detoxification treatment;
  • over 500 community-based prevention programs employing over 700 workers, almost all employed by First Nations and Inuit communities themselves.

Training funds and research and development funds originally committed to NNADAP have been "rolled into" the general NNADAP contributions budget and, consequently, the existence and potential for a clearly articulated, comprehensive training and research program with regional and national dimensions has been lost.

Operating separately but often in a close working relationship with NNADAP is the National Youth Solvent Abuse Program (NYSAP), which now funds 10 treatment centres across the country, each with a capacity of 12 inpatient beds (although one centre uses funding for two of its allocated bed spaces for outreach clients). The NYSAP is managed through a National Committee of solvent abuse treatment centre representatives. The Committee oversees the development of program standards and the negotiation of partnership protocols for the effective management of the program. The management of the program is independent of NNADAP and other community-based programs.