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Northern Health aims to destigmatize drug addiction

See a person for who they are, not what drugs they use. Listen while withholding judgment. Avoid using labels. This is some of the advice offered on Northern Health's website as part of its new initiative "Stop stigma. Save lives.
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See a person for who they are, not what drugs they use.

Listen while withholding judgment.

Avoid using labels.

This is some of the advice offered on Northern Health's website as part of its new initiative "Stop stigma. Save lives."

Frontline staff at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. in Prince George have some work to do to meet that standard, however, according to one local woman.

Moe, a woman who refers to herself as a working girl who has a drug addiction, describes her encounters at the hospital as judgmental and prejudicial.

She said she wouldn't go to the hospital now even if she was on her deathbed.

During past visits, she said she was accused of drug-seeking, told there was nothing wrong and then asked to leave the premises. She recalled a particularly hurtful incident where she wasn't even allowed to be seen like any other patient, that her concerns were addressed in the waiting room.

"When I left, they wiped the seat down like I was infectious," Moe said.

"It was a horrible feeling the way they made me feel. They made me feel like I was a germ. I will never go back there again. It was a horrible feeling the way they treated me that day."

Fiann Crane, Northern Health's regional director of preventive public health, said it's apparent that more work needs to be done to educate the staff at the hospital.

"They then will be able to replace their negative assumptions with the evidence-based facts and give compassionate care to people and no longer act as barriers to accessing healthcare," said Crane. "Very obviously healthcare workers are not immune to stigmatizing attitudes just like the general population, so it will be an ongoing process of educating and supporting staff."

Crane said there are mandatory training programs about respect in the workplace and cultural competency that talk about using a people-first focus, so rather than looking at person's ailment, look at the person as a human being first.

"Those are programs I think we can take a little bit further and address some of the fears people have of people who use drugs," said Crane. "We've been doing that for people who suffer from mental illness and this is just one more group of marginalized people for whom we need to be more clear and articulate about our expectations of staff and the care they give."

Another program available is Northern Health's Indigenous Health, which has been put in place to assist First Nations people navigate the medical system, offering aboriginal patient liaisons, a cultural safety plan offering respect and dignity and aboriginal health improvement committees but these programs don't address the situations faced at the hospital in an emergency situation or for marginalized people who are non-aboriginal.

Crane said the programs are generalized programs and are not geared towards those people who use drugs.

"So I think that's where we need to start to talk about them as a population," said Crane. "We all acknowledge that we sometimes have prejudice and we may act in a discriminatory manner towards people of colour, race, culture, religion, gender, gender preferences, and we're all aware now and are much more educated and supportive of that population but people who use drugs are still subject to discriminatory attitudes and prejudicial behaviours that we need to address."

Another program through the First Nations Health Authority is called Compassion, Inclusion and Engagement, which works locally for people who have addictions and healthcare providers to try to break down those barriers, said Crane.

"So this is one step," said Crane.

The "Stop stigma. Save lives." project started more than a year ago, said Crane, who asked clients using downtown services if they would like to meet with Northern Health staff to talk about their needs.

"In listening to their stories and being profoundly affected myself, I drew on my knowledge of the research that says storytelling is one of the most effective ways to grab people's attention and elicit an emotional response that can then affect behaviour," said Crane.

"I was considering those things and what I might be able to do in my role with Northern Health and it seemed like a pretty simple answer - offer them a platform through which they can share their own story, so that is what we did."

So far there are three people's stories on the site and a total of 12 Prince George people will be featured over the next several months.

Online right now is Moe's story, along with two other men, Trevor and George, who are in active addiction as well. Some featured in the stories are those addicted to drugs, while others have loved ones that are addicted to drugs.

"They all self-identified as someone really wanting to make a difference," said Crane. "My purpose was really to raise awareness and hopefully to modify - perhaps in a small way - the negative impacts of stigma on the people who use drugs," said Crane.

"My hope is as the campaign becomes more widely taken up by the public that people will be inspired to learn a little bit more about addictions and through doing that will replace some of their negative assumptions that have accumulated to negative attitudes and judgments and ultimately prejudice that leads to discrimination."

For more information visit northernhealth.ca/YourHealth/Stigma.aspx.