Hanover cuts funding for AFM counselling services

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This article was published 17/05/2019 (1803 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At some point during their time in high school, most Hanover students will walk into gym class only to find out they’re not going to be running laps that day—they are getting a talk from an Addictions Foundation of Manitoba worker.

Whatever they were expecting from an addictions counsellor, chances are it was not the curly-haired 37-year-old known by students as, “Dan the Drug Guy.”

Yet that is exactly what they get with Daniel Dacombe.

Dacombe has spent nine years educating Hanover youth and helping high school and middle school students work through substance addictions.

But now, thanks to Hanover School Division’s recent budget cuts, the AFM worker will no longer be working for the division.

Dacombe said the AFM had forewarning the Hanover board wasn’t going to renew his position.

“I mean, I don’t think anyone’s happy when positions are cut,” said Dacombe.

After nine years, Dacombe said he has a lot of success stories of students developing healthy coping skills as a result of his work.

He said a big part of his decision to work with youth was a result of career choices his family had made.

“I came from a family of people-helpers,” said Dacombe. “It seemed natural to do something that was going along the same lines.”

Between two nurses, a teacher and an engineer in his family, Dacombe had a lot of options. He eventually settled on counselling.

Dacombe said he was never interested in private counselling. “I didn’t want someone to come and pay $120 to talk to me for an hour. I wanted to be able to help people who couldn’t afford that.”

When he became a rehabilitation counsellor for AFM, Dacombe cycled from school to school, meeting with individual students and giving presentations in front of classes.

Dacombe dealt mostly with high school students, working out of Steinbach, Grunthal, Niverville and Landmark.

His focus was on building relationships and keeping the conversation non-judgmental.

“I try to stay away from scare tactics,” said Dacombe. “They either don’t work or backfire.”

Dacombe’s presentations included topics like brain science, biases in communication, social learning and testing online sources. He said he changes his tone depending on the presentation, but tries to incorporate humour on occasion.

“We learn better when we laugh a little,” said Dacombe.

As odd as it seems, even Dacombe’s nickname as the “Drug Guy” has helped break the ice with the students.

“It’s a nickname that kind of came up and stuck. In the earlier years I tried to downplay it, but there’s no way to stop it,” he said. “If it’s a way to reduce barriers, then that’s fine by me.”

Though there may be disadvantages to having teenagers walk up to you in a shopping mall calling you the drug guy.

“I guess I’m fairly recognizable,” joked Dacombe.

Dacombe said although it’s difficult to measure success working with youth, his work with AFM was very rewarding.

“It can be hard working with adolescents because you don’t see the end of the story,” he said.

Once the students graduate from high school, Dacombe rarely sees them again.

But occasionally he’ll happen to bump into students he’s worked with and have the chance to see how they’re doing.

“I’ve had students stop me in the grocery store and say, ‘Hey, you really helped me when I didn’t think I was worth helping,’” said Dacombe. “Then I have to go through the grocery line with tears in my eyes.”

Moving forward, Dacombe is now working a term position as a prevention education consultant for AFM in Winnipeg.

He’s training other professionals, like nurses and social workers, in order to extend AFM’s reach beyond just school programs.

Dacombe couldn’t say how Hanover was going to fill in his role, although he noted there were still addictions-based programs for youth in Steinbach.

HSD secretary treasurer Kevin Heide said when the board made its decisions on what to cut from the division, it looked at which programs were furthest from the classrooms.

“AFM, while it’s important, can’t be funded by the division,” said Heide. “We’re trying to be proactive rather than reactive about our budget.”

Heide said in addition to the Steinbach AFM programs, staff guidance counsellors will also be able to fill in for Dacombe.