Pubdate: Sat, 30 Jul 2016
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Cheyenne Johnson
Page: B5

B.C. EFFECTING POSITIVE CHANGE IN ADDICTION CARE

St. Paul's Hospital home to global leaders in research, writes
Cheyenne Johnson.

Every day in B.C., there is an average of two deaths from preventable
drug overdoses. Countless citizens are struggling to use less, to not
use or to hide their substance use, whether it is drugs or alcohol,
from their families and employers.

The prevailing belief in our society has been addiction impacts mainly
the disadvantaged and is an issue of morality or values. I can tell
you from my experience this is far from true. I am an addiction nurse
at St. Paul's Hospital. I see first-hand the impact of addictions on
patients, families and the health-care system.

Over the last decade, evidence-based research has significantly
advanced our understanding of the biology of addiction and established
addiction is a chronic and relapsing disease resulting from the
effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain's reward and control
circuitries. There are also genetic and other factors that make it
more likely for some individuals to develop this disorder than others.
These advances have wildly impacted both our understanding of
addiction as a medical condition and changed our approach to addiction
treatment with the development of new medications and treatment
interventions. But how our medical professionals receive training to
recognize and treat this disease has been slow to catch up.

Nurses are often on the front lines of the health-care system and
typically spend the most time with patients and families. But when we
look at nurses currently in practice and those undergoing training,
they are largely under-prepared to address the specific needs of
patients and families struggling with addiction. Those who do have
these skills acquired them over many years of practice and there is a
great deal of variance between service providers and jurisdictions in
the quality of addiction treatment. The same can be said for primary
care physicians and other allied health professions. There simply has
not been routine training to identify and treat addictions in clinical
practice.

Fortunately, thanks to the support of the provincial government, B.C.
is at the forefront in terms of effecting positive change in how
addiction treatment will be incorporated into the health-care system,
including how nurses and allied health-care professions are trained.

St. Paul's Hospital is home to global leaders in addiction medicine
research, education and care and has been a driving force in changing
the conversation in medical professions around addiction and promoting
it as a specialized area of medicine that requires focused training.

In 2013, with support from the provincial government, local mining
company Goldcorp and donors to St. Paul's Foundation, the St. Paul's
Hospital Goldcorp Addiction Medicine Fellowship program was created.
This training program provides specialized medical knowledge to
support the best evidence-based medical treatment of addictions. I was
fortunate to be one of the first graduating nursing fellows in the
program. What I learned was invaluable to how I can provide better
care to my patients.

We have now had three years of graduating physicians, nurses and
research fellows. This year, we've also started a social work stream.
Collectively, we are pioneering the way forward. Just like cancer,
addictions can affect any of us as well as the people we care about
most and it's our role to take the training we have received back to
our communities and areas of practice, to provide leadership and
advocacy in programming and care provision for our patients and their
families and to continue to promote system-wide reframing of addiction
treatment based on the best scientific evidence available.

The fellowship program would not have been possible without the
support of Goldcorp and the St. Paul's Foundation and its donors.

Our goal now is to continue to find ways to help fund additional
positions to expand the nursing fellowship outside of the Lower Mainland.

Cheyenne Johnson is a registered nurse, clinical and research leader and 
director of the Addiction Nursing Fellowship program at St. Paul's Hospital.
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MAP posted-by: Matt