BUILDING COMPASSIONATE COMMUNITIES
Learn about what drives substance use in our society and ways to make your community a kinder place for people impacted by substance use. These presentations were developed for anyone with an interest in mental health and substance use challenges. This includes medical practitioners, harm reduction workers, social workers, first responders, and loved ones of people facing such challenges. Each of the presenters brings expert knowledge to the topic, as well as personal experience supporting people with mental health and substance use challenges.
The Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Stigma and Opioid Crisis report outlined that “when designing and delivering anti-stigma interventions, they ought not to be thought of as one-off interventions but as a comprehensive set of tools and approaches that could be implemented complimentarily and thoroughly within a larger framework strategy.”1 Support Not Stigma advocates for education as an essential part of a wider comprehensive strategy to reduce stigma. A wider comprehensive strategy would address individual, interpersonal, and structural factors that promote substance use stigma. We recognize substance use and stigma are both complex and embedded in a history that will take some time to shift. This page provides some educational resources to support building capacity among the public and those who care for People Who Use Substances.The Bio-psycho-social-spiritual Model of Addiction
Ron Shore, PhD, provides an overview of the bio-psycho-social-spiritual model of addiction based on his three decades working in and researching drug-related health. Starting with drugs (why we use them and the history of human drug use), contemporary models of understanding drug dependence are outlined. Finally, by examining the research on psychedelics, models of human consciousness are explored upon which to base future practice.
Street Life Writ Large
Claudia McNulty, former Coordinator for the Community Support Program at Kingston’s Integrated Care Hub, delivers a detailed presentation on “Street Life Writ Large,” including why service providers serving street-involved people should know more about their clients’ daily lives, the labour of substance use, the myth of choice, the impact of street life on the people we serve and how service providers can do better.
The History of Neoliberalism & The War on Drugs
Candice Christmas-Krumreich, PhD, provides a history of how post-modern Neoliberal ideology and policies have negatively impacted the lives of the working and middle classes in Canada and how cuts to social safety nets have led to increased mental health, substance use, and homelessness.
