#NAAW: People with addiction and mental health better served when researchers and clinicians work together
It often takes a crisis for frontline staff to see people living with addiction and that’s a narrow representation of that person’s day-to-day life. To better understand it, researchers need the big picture. They need to know if there are other medical issues and environmental triggers to assess existing treatments and develop new ones.
That link between clinicians and mental health researchers is being forged here, at the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research (PBCAR). According to Dr. Michael Amlung, the centre is ideally suited for bringing the two sides together. As a faculty scientist with the PBCAR and a research psychologist with St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, Amlung is accompanying the progress closely.
“One of the unique aspects of St. Joe’s from a mental health perspective is that you have McMaster researchers on site at the West 5th Campus,” he said. That’s the kind of infrastructure you need for translational partnerships, a connection between what is happening in the front lines and what is going on in research.
“It started organically. At least some of it,” he said. “We had individuals on the scientific side crossing boundaries and vice versa.”
The next key development in forming translational partnerships came when managers and directors gave their “buy-in,” Amlung said. “They sat at the table with us and provided resources. It helps that we have the Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton, and innovation and exploration are part of our mission as an academic health sciences centre.”
During National Addictions Awareness Week, Nov. 12-18, 2017, Amlung and two colleagues are sharing their learnings at a Calgary conference organized by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA).
They’re presenting on three recent partnerships between an addictions research centre and treatment providers.
Amlung himself has been refining a standardized screening process where clients are given the option to fill out questionnaires that go beyond the immediate crisis. These self-reports allow frontline staff to learn if the client believes there are concurrent medical conditions and other factors that need to be taken into account when care is provided. They also give researchers a standardized data set that allows them to compare findings and help develop new treatment tools for clinicians.
His colleague, Dr. Iris Balodis, assistant professor, department of psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences, is presenting on handouts created for problem gambling. They’re written with the client in mind, without medical jargon. These handouts provide clients with current information about the neuroscience behind problem gambling along with helpful hands-on exercises to strengthen understanding and self-awareness of how gambling is related to the brain.
Fellow presenter, Dr. James MacKillop, Peter Boris Chair in Addictions Research and Director of the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, is speaking about comorbid addiction and trauma – the presence of two chronic diseases or conditions – in an inpatient addictions treatment setting. So far, more than 1,000 inpatients have been screened and the data indicates a high severity of drug and alcohol use. In addition, nearly half of respondents reported significant trauma history, something that wouldn’t be evident when a client arrives during a crisis, but could help clinicians personalize treatment.
According to Dr. MacKillop, “these translational partnerships and their impact on treatment delivery reflect the real progress we are making in narrowing the gap between research and practice.”