Open letter to the Putnams:
I was listening to CBC radio on Thursday and heard your interview regarding the loss of your young son, Chris, to alcohol.
It is heartbreaking.
Your interview opened my eyes to the inadequacy of alcohol treatment services in the Yukon.
It reminded me of the friends I have lost to alcohol, of friends who are alcoholics, but functioning. It is only a matter of time they will drink themselves to death.
The song by Coldplay you played at the beginning and end of your son’s funeral, and played at the end of your radio interview, had me sobbing.
I will always remember your son, although I never knew him.
He will be added to the list of people I know who have died and are slowly dying because of alcohol.
The treatment and help for what is a medical problem, alcoholism, is nonexistent.
A 28-day program. Big deal. Then what? There is no transition after the 28-day program. They open the door and say goodbye to the back of your head. Next.
Until the proper treatment centres and specialists are in place, all profits from the sale of alcohol should go to their implementation.
The idea of an on-the-land treatment facility I think is a big step in the right direction. Fly out in the bush to beautiful accommodations on a lake. Stay there for six months. Get off the roller coaster, which is what all our lives are. Heal.
With the proper treatment and assistance, we could see an end to our sons’, daughters’, fathers’, mothers’, grandparents’, husbands’, wives’ and friends’ deaths from what is a medical problem, alcoholism.
Yvonne Bessette
Whitehorse