| 7:00-8:00 |
AA Meeting (Second Floor Boardroom)
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| 8:30-9:00 |
Breakfast in Exhibit Hall (Room 100) |
| 9:00-10:30 |
Plenary Session (Room 200)
Dr. Franco J. Vaccarino, PhD
Principal, University of Toronto Scarborough & Vice-President, University of Toronto
Title: “Neuroscience, Discovery Research and Treatment Implications”
Description: As the National Treatment Strategy calls for developments in the addictions treatment system throughout Canada, there are significant developments taking place in neuroscience and addictions. To stay current and relevant, the treatment system in Canada will need to stay informed and take into account the research and developments in neuroscience. This plenary presentation will address the following major topics:
- Why neuroscience is important to understanding addictions and its connection to treatment
- New discoveries in research and their implications for treatment of addictions
- Research that is likely to be transformative and its impact on the treatment system
The presentation will also integrate information on the following topics:
- Drugs and the brain, biological and psychological effects, differential effects and clinical impact
- Reward and motivation systems and the role of drugs in chronic addiction, withdrawal and relapse
- Neuroscience and the role medications can play
- Neurological components and understanding concurrent disorders
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| 10:30-11:00 |
Networking Break in Exhibit Hall (Room 100) |
| 11:00-12:30 |
Concurrent Session 4
CC 4 Integrating Mental Health and Addictions: Models and Strategies
Speakers:
Facilitator: Dr. Brian Rush, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Description: In 2001, Health Canada released Best Practices—Concurrent Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders and a range of integration activities followed, along with related benefits and questions. The first two presentations will: explain some different models of integration and review the strength of evidence; consider the relationship between the co-occurrence of mental and substance use disorders and a range of physical health problems; and conclude with a summary of key facilitating factors and challenges, including recommendations for clinical practice with complex cases. The third presentation will describe an integrated Mental Health and Addiction Strategy (MH&AS) being undertaken by the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) and a network of community agencies. The MH&AS builds on past successes and national and provincial strategies and frameworks, allows RQHR and its partners to participate in national and provincial initiatives, and takes advantage of opportunities to secure public policy support and resources to expand program capacity.
SAT 4 Hear Me Heal: A Research Project on Aboriginal Women, Drug Abuse and the Healing Journey
Speakers:
Facilitator: Dr. Colleen Dell, University of Saskatchewan
Description: This interactive session relays the findings of a four-year, CIHR-funded collaborative study that examined the role of stigma and identity in the healing journeys of criminalized First Nations women in National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP) treatment across Canada. Focusing on individuals’ pathways to change, this session highlights: the voices of research team members with lived experience on how their healing narratives guided the study; the voices of interviewed treatment providers regarding gender-specific skills and traits to assist women in their healing journeys; and the voices of women in treatment interviewed, detailing the role of cultural identify in their change process.
PHP 4 People at Risk: New Data, Unique Perspectives and Where We Go from Here
Speakers:
Facilitator: Dr. Tracy Luciani, CCSA
Description: The first presentation reports on the results of in-depth interviews with service providers who work with street-involved youth, focusing on six emerging themes that influence risk and resiliency. A youth-driven intervention strategy informed by these results will be discussed. The next presentation will provide an overview of substance use findings in youth involved with child welfare from the Maltreatment and Adolescent Pathways (MAP) Project—a three-year longitudinal study of youth involved with child protective services. The patterns of use in this population will be explored together with the links between child maltreatment, mental health and the development of substance use and misuse. The third presentation will describe the prevalence, sequence of virus identification, demographic and associated risk factors of HIV/HCV co-infection from anonymously linked HIV and HCV cases identified in BC. This presentation will discuss possible public health and harm reduction measures to reduce the risk of co-infection in this population.
EIBI 4 Mental Health, Addiction and Wellness Promotion in the Canadian Forces AND Community Prevention Education by the RCMP and East Kootenay Addiction Services
Speakers:
Facilitator: Michael Hobson, Department of National Defence
Description: The Canadian Military has developed a systemic mental health education campaign to teach individual coping and resiliency skills and to develop leadership skills based on a mental health continuum model. The first two presentations outline the military’s practical approach to developing and implementing this mental health educational intervention, and discuss the mental health continuum model and its application. The third presentation will present a community model in prevention for youth, known as the Community Prevention Education Continuum (CPEC). CPEC has been building and growing in the East Kootenay Region for the past 10 years. Through frequent differing views (“PC vs. Mac”), the RCMP and East Kootenay Addiction Services have come together collaboratively with the community to mobilize partners throughout the East Kootenay Region in Prevention Education.
PCHP 4 Social Justice Issues for Injection Drug Users: Access to Services and Supports and Meaningful Involvement in Research
Speakers:
Facilitator: Dr. Lois Jackson, Dalhousie University
Description: This session will include three presentations based on findings from a major, pan-Atlantic research project involving interviews with 116 injection drug users (IDUs) across all four Atlantic provinces. The first presentation will discuss stigma and discrimination in accessing services and supports. The second presentation will examine how/where one lives affects access to services. The third presentation will discuss the challenges and opportunities of involving IDUs and other stakeholders in research. Engaging questions related to the overarching theme of Social Justice for Injection Drug Users will be posed to audience participants.
CCMA 4 Care Planning for Significant Others, Offenders and Smokers
Speakers:
Facilitator: Bill Nelles, National Opiate Treatment Association of Canada
Description: The first presentation describes the creation and implementation of the Concerned Significant Others group that aims to improve communication, safe care practices and service awareness. The second presentation reports research findings that demonstrate the use of the Severity of Dependence Scale and exposure to a high-intensity program followed by community-based aftercare reduces revocation and relapse. The third presentation will report on a pilot study that utilizes a multimodal approach to maximize smoking cessation: a combination of cognitive behavioural strategies (group therapy), amelioration of cued conditioning (electronic cigarette), pharmacotherapy (varenicline) and lung age as assessed by Pulmonary Function Testing.
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| 12:30-13:30 |
Lunch (Room 200) |
| 13:30-15:00 |
Concurrent Session 5
CC 5 Better Treatment, Harm Reduction and Prevention Using a Population-informed Approach: Sex, Gender and Diversity
Speakers:
Facilitator: Nancy Poole, BC Centre of Excellence for Women's Health
Description: One pathway to improving the continuum of care for people with substance use problems and addictions in Canada is to take a population-informed approach. This session is an opportunity to learn how to bring a sex/gender/diversity analysis to work in girls’ and women’s treatment, harm reduction and prevention, an issue that has been considered over the past two years.
SAT 5 Treatment Approaches: Responding with Creativity and Knowledge
Speakers:
Facilitator: Dr. Louise Nadeau, Université de Montréal
Description: The first presentation will describe the Regina Correctional Centre Designated Substance Abuse Unit, an in-patient program that provides a comprehensive range of evidence-based treatment components and modalities. The second presentation will describe the role of Aboriginal cultural beliefs in the treatment of solvent abuse among Aboriginal youth. The presentation will address the difference between Western psychiatric disorder-based (individualistic) and Aboriginal cultural-based (holistic) approaches to treatment and healing. The third presentation will describe how the Jean Tweed Centre (JTC) has engaged in a process of building capacity to serve pregnant and parenting women with substance use concerns across Toronto. The presentation will share how the JTC introduced an outreach model to improve access and outcomes, ’how one thing led to another’, and will invite participants to discuss how they might adapt a model in their own communities.
PHP 5 Substance Use in Canada—Recent Evidence and Implications for Treatment Programs and Policies
Speakers:
Facilitator: Judy Snider, Health Canada
Description: Evidence-based decision-making is an often-expressed principle for guidance in the development and direction of programs and policies. Unfortunately, where illicit drugs are concerned, the evidence-base is diverse and incomplete. Still, there are sources of information that may be drawn upon to describe the substance use situation in Canada. This information can help guide decision-makers and service-providers in the area of substance use treatment on the nature and the extent of needs to be addressed. This presentation highlights recent evidence from three different sources and discusses the implications for treatment needs and planning in each case.
EIBI 5 Partnering with Families Affected by Co-occurring Addiction and Mental Health Disorders
Speakers:
Facilitator: Wayne Skinner, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Description: This workshop describes a line of work that aims to support and partner with families affected by concurrent disorders. The initial presentation consists of a description of the first research study in Canada focusing on families affected by co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders (CODs). The second presentation describes the creation of a community of practice currently providing facilitated family support/education groups in 20 locations across Ontario, as well as evaluation data. The third presentation focuses on pilot research to test the effectiveness of a virtual space to provide group support and education.
PCHP 5 Youth and Harm Reduction: Building Community Health through Peer Mentoring, Partnerships and Change
Speakers:
Facilitator: Maria Moutsatsos, YMCA Youth Substance Abuse Program
Description: The first two presentations will provide an overview of the YMCA’s Youth Substance Abuse Program (YSAP) peer mentoring project. The project trains youth to develop and facilitate harm reduction-based drug information workshops within their own communities. According to best practice research, prevention programs must be age specific. The third presentation will describe a collaborative grassroots effort, initiated by a cross-section of concerned school, community health and government personnel that proved successful in ending an ineffective alcohol prevention program in Nova Scotia elementary and junior high schools, and building an advocacy base for future evidence-based, harm reduction policies and programs.
CCMA 5 Core Competencies and Their Application for the Substance Abuse Workforce
Speakers:
Facilitator: Elva Keip, CCSA
Description: This session describes three major areas of work carried out by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse in determining core technical and behavioural competencies and in identifying the extent to which core technical competences are taught in social work programs in Canada. The presenters explain the processes followed in both conducting research and consulting with professionals in the substance abuse field to arrive at the final documents. There will be discussions on how the documents can be further developed and how the tools that have been created can assist organization using the competencies. |
| 15:00-16:00 |
Networking Break and Poster Sessions in Exhibit Hall (Room 100) |
| 16:00-17:30 |
Concurrent Session 6
CC 6 Screening for Concurrent Disorders in Youth: Building Capacity through Research, Knowledge Translation and Development of a Cross-sectoral Network
Speakers:
Facilitator: Dr. Brian Rush, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Description: This panel presents research on youth substance use and mental health screening tools and knowledge exchange processes for improving services to youth with concurrent disorders. Findings, lessons learned and recommendations based on research on screening tools for children and youth, the development of a cross-sectoral network to undertake a youth concurrent disorder screening study and implementation of a number of knowledge exchange strategies are shared. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss implications of the research findings for building capacity and collaborative networks to meet the needs of youth with concurrent disorders in their own communities.
SAT 6 Building Bridges in Knowledge Translation and Exchange with Agencies Serving Women with Substance Use Issues
Speakers:
Facilitator: Dr. Alison Niccols, McMaster University
Description: The first two presentations will present the results of a national survey of addiction agencies serving women; the stakeholders' use of evidence-informed practice, barriers and facilitators; and their preferences for receiving practice-related information. The session will continue with a discussion of the implications of the survey for clinical practice, policy, collaboration and knowledge exchange. The third presentation will explore the ambivalence and contradiction that surrounds controlled drinking as a goal choice for women’s treatment. Despite significant international research that supports controlled drinking as a treatment option, in Canada, abstinence is often seen as the only choice, regardless of which policies guide the treatment program.
PHP 6 Effective Youth Engagement in Substance Use Prevention and Health Promotion
Speakers:
Facilitator: Krystel Carrier-Sabourin, CCSA
Description: This interactive session, with a National Priority Advisor from the CCSA and a youth from the Young Decision Makers network, will introduce the principle of youth engagement and explain the objectives of meaningfully engaging youth in policy and program development. Using CCSA’s Drug Prevention Strategy for Canada’s Youth as an example, the presenter will describe how youth engagement can be integrated in substance abuse prevention and health promotion activities. Participants of this session will have the opportunity to take part in an interactive activity to determine how youth can be (better) engaged in their organization’s prevention and health promotion initiatives.
EIBI 6 Methadone Maintenance Treatment: Pathways and Bridges to Change
Speakers:
Facilitator: Sara Johnson, Correctional Service of Canada
Description: The first two presentations will examine two research projects involving federally sentenced offenders who participated in a prison-based Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) program or a Community-based MMT program. In the third presentation, Health Canada’s MMT Best Practices (2002) is the evidence base for the PEI Methadone Maintenance Treatment Program, a harm reduction model of treatment providing a ‘pathway to change’ for clients who have struggled on the fringes of addiction services. Integral components include detailed ongoing assessment, client involvement in treatment planning and counselling. The primary strategies are collaboration, partnerships and case management. Real case histories will be used to elicit discussion about the strategies and the challenges faced in developing this model and addressing the ‘continuity’ of care issues.
PCHP 6 Evidence-Based Decision Making: An Essential Tool for Informing Best Practice and Creating a Research Infrastructure in Addiction Agencies
Speakers:
Facilitator: Shaun Black, Nova Scotia Department of Health
Description: While Canada is in the position to offer the best possible addiction practice in the world, we fail in achieving this through our inability to effectively identify and translate the best evidence into clinical practice and research. This session demonstrates how integration of evidence-based decision making (EBDM) theory and practice enabled an addictions agency to inform clinical practice, foster collaborations and design and implement a nationally funded clinical research program. By creating discussions around the challenges faced during the design and implementation of two clinical trials, these presenters hope to lend insight to agencies in establishing a research infrastructure.
CCMA 6 Care Journeys: Mapping and Remapping Client Experiences in Seeking and Receiving Care for Addiction Problems and Related Needs
Speakers:
Facilitator: Wayne Skinner, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Description: This interactive session will use scenarios based on real narratives to explore client and family members’ experiences in seeking and receiving care for addictions and related needs. By mapping real care journeys, with periods of engagement and disengagement, we will explore, using the Tiered Model and principles of the National Treatment Strategy, the ways current services and supports respond to the needs of people seeking help. This will then be used to remap a model system capable of providing effective care journeys for people with addiction problems and related needs. |
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