BC-CfE, St. Paul’s and UBC to lead new addiction medicine fellowship program
Goldcorp donation will be used to help establish an addiction training program – the first of its kind in the world
The field of addiction medicine in B.C. is set to make huge advances after resource firm Goldcorp Inc. announced a $5-million donation to two unique addiction and mental health programs serving Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
The announcement was made on September 21 at the newly renamed Goldcorp Centre for Mental Health on East Hastings. With the largest concentration of injection drug users in the country, the Downtown Eastside suffers from high rates of infectious diseases, including HIV and hepatitis C, and overdose deaths stemming largely from high rates of untreated drug and alcohol addiction. Making matters worse, residents are commonly unable to access drug and alcohol treatment, in large part because of the limited number of specialized addiction medicine physicians.
Three million dollars from Goldcorp’s gift will be used to address this shortfall through the establishment of the Goldcorp Fellowship in Addiction Medicine at St. Paul’s Hospital, which will be Canada’s only addiction medicine training program west of Ontario. The remaining $2 million will be used to support the Assertive Community Treatment program (ACT), an intensive, voluntary outreach mental health service operated by Vancouver Coastal Health. It supports people in the Downtown Eastside who have severe, persistent mental illness and addiction.
“We want to help create a healthier future for the Downtown Eastside,” said Chuck Jeannes, president and CEO of Goldcorp. “We’re pleased that our donation will enable health care experts to leverage one another’s work, and produce a transformational and lasting impact in the lives of Vancouver’s most vulnerable residents.”
The Fellowship in Addiction Medicine will be led by Dr. Evan Wood, co-director of the Urban Health Research Initiative at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE). It will address a critical lack of skilled addiction medicine specialists in the province and provide training in addiction medicine to 20 post-doctoral fellows over five years.
“Addictions treatment in B.C. falls so far short of the need,” said Dr. Wood. “A very limited number of physicians in this province are appropriately trained in addiction medicine, making it difficult for vulnerable populations to access much-needed drug and alcohol treatment.
“Goldcorp’s generous funding for this Fellowship will create the capacity to increase care and create a critical mass of addiction medicine physicians to help make BC a world leader in this area.”
Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the BC-CfE, noted that the implementation of the BC-CfE-pioneered Treatment as Prevention strategy has been extremely successful in decreasing AIDS-related deaths and disease progression and preventing new HIV infections in the province. In fact, B.C. is the only province in Canada that has shown a consistent decline in new HIV cases. However, he also noted that more needs to be done in the critical area of addiction treatment to continue the fight against HIV and AIDS in this province.
“We are very appreciative of Goldcorp’s commitment and support for expanded addiction treatment,” said Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the BC-CfE. “There is an urgent need for the expansion of evidence-based addiction treatment, especially given the severe social and medical costs stemming from untreated alcohol and drug addiction.”