Tracey Morrison, an aboriginal woman with drug and alcohol addictions, has felt judged by medical professionals for her Downtown Eastside postal code and the colour of her skin.
She says she’s been kicked out of and turned away from St. Paul’s Hospital without receiving treatment she sought. She claims a doctor at the Pender Community Health Clinic greeted her with “What’s your script?” immediately assuming she was on methadone when she was seeking help for her type 2 diabetes, arthritis pain and other ailments.
“I get frustrated when I can’t see a good doctor and then I don’t see a doctor, and that’s when my addiction gets even worse,” said Morrison, who rarely drinks but uses “not a whole lot” of crack every day. “Because I’m trying to dull the pain or even that I’m scared to go to the doctor or I’m frustrated to go to the doctor.”
That’s why Morrison, a board member of the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society, is pleased that an addiction medicine training program will start in Vancouver July 1, with international accreditation from the American Board of Addiction Medicine.
Dr. Evan Wood, director of the St. Paul’s Hospital Goldcorp Fellowship in Addiction Medicine and Canada Research Chair in Inner City Medicine at the University of B.C., believes better trained doctors would help reduce the stigma against people with addictions by increasing understanding that addiction is a medical condition with social implications and medical interventions can dramatically improve health.