NEWS: Provincial report asks government to recognize addiction as a disease

Approximately one in 10 people in B.C. suffers from some form of addiction or dependence, and 30 per cent of people diagnosed with mental illness will also have a substance-abuse disorder in their lifetime, according to a report released by the B.C. Medical Association (BCMA). Given these statistics, the report calls on the provincial government to formally recognize addiction as a chronic, treatable disease. Such a designation could pave the way toward better treatment, says Dr. Shao-Hua Lu, a BCMA addictions psychiatrist and the lead author of the paper.

Dr. Lu says one of the most significant barriers to treatment is the public stigma surrounding addiction, which can be tackled through more focused medical research. For example, he points out, cancer in the 1950s and HIV in the 1980s were highly stigmatized, but research and public education have helped to decrease those stigmas and, by extension, increase access to treatment. In many cases, addiction continues to be perceived as the result of personal failure or individual shortcomings. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association’s 2008 National Report Card on Health Care, only about half of Canadians think of drug addiction, alcoholism, or gambling as mental illnesses, despite extensive medical research that shows strong links between mental illness and addiction.

“One of our hopes is that by offering treatment and creating treatment, the stigmatization associated with addiction will correspondingly decrease,” says Dr. Lu. “One of the most devastating elements of addiction is it’s insidious, it’s shameful, and people don’t talk about it. So, [addicted] individuals accumulate loss upon loss until it’s too late.”

Trish Walsh supports the arguments presented in the BCMA report. She is the executive director of the InnerChange Foundation, a Vancouver organization that supports research, public outreach, and advocacy for drug addictions and concurrent disorders. Walsh and the InnerChange Foundation have submitted proposals to the provincial government to call for an addictions-based centre for excellence, modelled after organizations like the BC Cancer Agency. “There’s huge gaps in the system, and part of the reason for that is, traditionally, health-care systems — including Canada — have focused separately on either mental health and addiction,” she says. “Patients are left with two incomplete treatment models.”

In addition to fragmented, often expensive, and hard-to-access addiction treatment, the BCMA report includes provincial statistics that demonstrate the degree to which addiction afflicts people across the province — not just in the Downtown Eastside, which is often perceived as B.C.’s hotbed for addiction and mental-health issues. The report suggests that between 2,000 and 4,000 people who are homeless and have a severe addiction or mental illness live in the Downtown Eastside, out of an estimated 11,750 in similar situations across the province. Meanwhile, 33,000 British Columbians are estimated to have a serious dependence on illicit drugs, and 120,000 have a high probability of alcohol dependence. An estimated 120,000 British Columbians have a moderate gambling problem, while 31,000 have a severe gambling problem.

“B.C. physicians are treating patients with addiction on a day-to-day basis already,” says Dr. Lu. “We’d like to see individuals treated no differently than any other disease.”