This blog’s comments will focus on the medical profession’s past and present attitudes towards substance dependency within its own ranks. I cannot comment (due to my lack of experience) on nurses’/hospitals’ attitudes towards addicted nurses, nor can I comment on ...
Health professionals are held to a higher standard of conduct in their everyday (non-professional) lives outside of the office, clinic or hospital. I know of many instances of nurses and doctors, psychologists, pharmacists and veterinarians being hauled up before their...
If you belong to a visible minority, it has become well established in recent years that you are at higher risk of being discriminated against by the police, the justice system, the health care system and society as a whole....
I see my addictionist, a medical doctor, every three months in his office. At each visit he asks me: are there any people in my life who are an impediment to my Recovery? For the last few years, I have...
Sponsorship, as described in the Twelve Step programs, has become a vital and important concept in the age of the Covid-19 pandemic. It may not be possible to attend live meetings for the time being but it should be possible...
These are difficult times for recovering addicts and alcoholics. Isolation (both physical and psychological) are at an all-time high. 12-step meetings have been shut down. Relapses on alcohol and drugs are on the rise (both statistically and in terms of...
There are instances when opiate medications are required to control severe, acute pain (e.g. dental procedures, kidney stones…). How can these pain killers be used safely in recovering addicts? First and foremost, the recovering addict needs to establish excellent communication...
Health care professionals often take much more time off work in the treatment of their addiction than other professionals. This is because of the particular intellectual challenges of the profession, as well as the dangers awaiting health professionals in the...
A May 26, 2018 article that appeared in the Windsor Star “In the Shadows: People living on Windsor’s streets struggle in Times of Plenty” by Dave Battagello made me think how properly funded Harm Reduction treatment (discussed in the previous...
Abstinence refers to complete avoidance of all mood-altering substances in Recovery. Harm Reduction, on the other hand, has often come to mean: the substitution or “replacement” of a toxic addictive substance with a less dangerous but analogous prescribed medication. Recently,...
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