Canada’s first conference on addiction and technology wrapped up Thursday with a message to the host community: speak up for resources.

Those words came from Rick Dubras, who works with addicted youth at a treatment centre in Richmond.

“There’s a real need and if we’re not careful, there will be more of a need,” he said.

“Communities can do a lot if they have a voice. I would speak up for the resources.”

Dubras spoke at the final plenary with Dr. Bruce Alexander, an addictions researcher, author, counsellor and professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University. The session was moderated by Daily News editor Mel Rothenburger.

The conference drew about 120 people to the Ukrainian Hall Thursday; about half were youths from local schools.

As technology addiction is relatively new, there isn’t a lot of information about it or recommended treatment for it.

“I’m a student of this,” Dubras said. “We’re learning on the fly.”

Ironically, Alexander pointed out, “there’s all kinds of stuff on the internet.” There are even online support groups.

But there’s still nothing better than face-to-face intervention, he said.

Dubras spoke about two boys, about 13 and 15, he heard about a couple of years ago. Their parents came to him because the duo refused to go to school. Instead, they stayed home and played online games.

He never found out what happened in that case because the parents never came back.

But he gets lots of calls about similar situations. The only statistics available about the prevalence of process addiction, as being hooked on technology is called, is from Asia. One study showed that in China, 13.7 per cent of kids from 13 to 19 were addicted to electronics.

At the Richmond centre where he works, Dubras estimated six to 10 per cent of the clients he deals with have an addiction to technology.

Alexander said the first step to dealing with process addiction is a conference such as the one held in Kamloops Wednesday night and Thursday. It gets people talking.

The second step is to lobby at the higher political levels, raising awareness among politicians and pushing for services, he said.