How to find non-academic mentors

Posted by

mentor, climbing

Mentors facilitate professional development in academia. But non-academic mentors are equally important. Here, I acknowledge non-academic mentors and their contribution to my development as a professional and as a person.

Engage in not for profit organizations.

Two organizations jump started my work in non-profits, the University Pastoral Centre and a youth club. I learned the power of community building through youth activism with John Lesondak and taught team building for non-profits with Ivan Humenik. With Ivan and friends, we also had a musical band, JK& band. These activities inspired me to get involved in the community projects for people who use drugs. (more…)

Addiction training provision must meet training needs

Posted by

doors

Closing the gap between training needs and training provision in addiction medicine

 

Substance use disorders pose a significant global social and economic burden. Although effective interventions exist, treatment coverage remains limited.

 

The lack of an adequately trained workforce is one of the prominent reasons.

Recent initiatives improved training nationally, but further efforts are required to build curricula that are internationally applicable. We therefore believe that the training needs of professionals in the area have not yet been explored in sufficient detail.

Addiction training provision must meet training needs

We propose that a peer-led survey to assess those needs, using a standardised structured tool, would help to overcome this deficiency.

The findings from such a survey could be used to develop a core set of competencies which is sufficiently flexible in its implementation to address the specific needs of the wide range of professionals working in addiction medicine worldwide.

Source: Arya, S., Delic, M., Ruiz, B., Klimas, J., Papanti, D., Stepanov, A., . . . Krupchanka, D. (2019). Closing the gap between training needs and training provision in addiction medicine. BJPsych International, 1-3. doi:10.1192/bji.2019.27

If you enjoyed reading about this research, you might enjoy reading about a similar needs assessment here:

Scoping the needs of early career addiction specialists, Protocol

(more…)

Hospital based opioid agonist treatment

Posted by

Researchers recently found that many people with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders are admitted to inpatient psychiatric units. According to a 2019 report from the Boston’s Institute for Healthcare Improvement and The Grayken Center, “hospitals have the opportunity to make a major impact in reducing morbidity and mortality related to opioid use.” The present study, therefore, looked at patients admitted to an acute care hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia. It sought to improve our understanding of this population and the care provided so that we can improve patients’ outcomes and care experiences.

(more…)

Pain Management with Opioids in 2019-2020

Posted by

This JAMA Insights Clinical Update reviews evidence-based use of opioids to manage noncancer pain, proposing opioid-sparing pain management.  Based on recent literature and the rapidly evolving nature of the opioid overdose epidemic due to the emergence of fentanyl analogues in the illicit drug supply, there are clearly 3 main clinical scenarios being confronted by clinicians where evidence-based recommendations can be made. (more…)

Boost for Oral Opioid Agonist Therapy

Posted by

Although opioid agonist treatment is effective in treating opioid use disorders, retention in such treatment is suboptimal in part due to quality of care issues. A new initiative sought to boost treatment of opioid use disorders so that people stay there longer. This article describes how teams did in a structured quality improvement initiative in Vancouver, Canada. (more…)