Actor Cory Monteith often spoke frankly about his currentstruggles with addiction, acknowledging it had complicated his high school years and that inmanyways he was lucky to be alive. With news that Mr. Monteith died of anoverdoseinvolving alcohol and heroin, his passing is cause to reflect on the challenges addictionposes to millions of individuals, their families, and communities worldwide.
Many of us donotinclude handsome 'Glee' actors in our conception of the addicted individual. Indeed, for some, Mr. Monteith's sunny disposition, talent, and fairytale rise to fame stands in harsh contrast to the seemingly haggard faces and unenviable lives of those that experiencestreet-level drug scenes ilkthat in Vancouver's poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside.
This longsocial and economic gulf between Mr. Monteith and those that delivernot only addiction but homelessness overlybegs the question if personlike Mr. Monteith - with stature and a wealth of resources at his disposal- was not able to conquer his addiction, why do we comfortexpress disdain for those individuals of lesser means with multiple, competing health issues who also"fail" to recover?
Obstacles to addictionhandlingvary widely from country to country,metropolisto city, even from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. But two challenges that remain ceaselessacross diverse settings bethe inadequacy of specializedclinicaladdiction training and a perpetual and crippling missof treatment facilities.
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These constraints are crucial, because inadequate or untrackedcare means many people will ne'erget the evidence-based care they need, and will instead be leftoverto contend with overwhelming consequences of untreated addiction - among them the loss of family ties, employment, and too often, premature death from overdoses or blood-borne diseases manageHIV or Hepatitis C.
Thankfully, B.C.'s provincial government and local health governmentworkredoubled their efforts to address this healthcare gap.
Over the next five years, the St. Paul's hospitalGoldcorp Fellowship in Addiction Medicine will hand overevidence-based clinical training for 20 addiction medicine doctors to inspection and repairfight and manage addiction with the most advanced tools open- whether on the streets of the Downtown Eastside or in the suites of the Fairmont pacificRim Hotel.
Later this year, a network of researchers will launch a centre for clinical trials focusing specifically on testcutting-edge addiction treatments, a research enterprise that has the possibleto produce game-changing therapies that could influence how we treat addiction the world over.
For this actto be successful, however, we as a society must tacklethat addiction should be treated as an illness like diabetes or cancer - and not as a chastefailing deserving of stigma or prison time. Whether addicts are movie stars or people living on the street, those that face this illness require our compassion. Without it, efforts to connect drug-dependent individuals with evidence-based care will be for naught, police and jail guards will continue to be the ones tasked to handgripthose with addiction who need help most.
Rather than punishing and shaming people like Mr. Monteith and his less affluent counterparts, we need to ensure that governments and health authorities provide full and ready access to addiction treatment services. As a society, we need to recognize that the spiral of addiction, stigma, and the calamityof premature deaths can be averted through acondole withresponse that prioritizes evidence-based clinical treatment. Once this is done, will we finally be able to heal those among us, at all levels of society, who need our help.
So far, they shake offonly received our scorn.
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Materials taken from The Huffington Post
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