“Changing Practice, Changing Policy” – BC Substance Use Conference 2020
Date: June 4 – 6, 2020
Location: JW Marriott Parq Vancouver Hotel, 39 Smithe Street, Vancouver, on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people.
From the conference posting:
We are in the midst of a longstanding crisis of drug-related harms. The scope of this crisis has only become wider and the devastation more acute in recent years, notably sparking the declaration of a public health emergency in 2016. One thing that has become obvious in the midst of this crisis is that it will take the ongoing and effective collaboration of a variety of stakeholders in order to bring about urgently needed changes across the entire continuum of care.
We welcome everyone including addiction medicine clinicians, other health care providers, researchers, people with lived and living experience, families impacted by substance use, and policymakers — from all across the province and beyond — we will strategize ways that we can finally bring about effective policies, interventions, and solutions. Also you will have ample time to connect and learn from new colleagues, as well as cement relationships with familiar friends and allies from all across our province and country.
Come to share ideas, learn from others, build new paradigms for practice, and contribute to the ongoing improvement of the public health and health care systems.
Although our collective efforts are having an important impact, the past few years have sadly taught us that so much more still needs to be done to bring about an evidence-based approach to substance use and addiction in the province. We need more clinicians trained to provide the best evidence-based treatment in primary care settings; we need more innovative public health programming to address the toxic and deadly drug supply; we need to identify more evidencebased and effective treatments; and we need to create more access points to treatment, recovery, and care. We sincerely hope that this conference will help to ignite further efforts across our province. Through renewed efforts, we can all continue to make progress toward transforming and creating an evidence-based substance use system of care. Together, we can realize a future where substance use is understood as a public health issue rather than one for the criminal justice system, and where addiction is viewed and treated in the same light as any other health and social challenge.
Abstracts
Are you interested in submitting an abstract? Abstracts are being accepted until Friday February 28, 2020 at 8:00 AM Pacific time. Notices to be sent by early April.
Learn more about the conference, how to submit and abstract and register