Presentation ends at 58:01 followed by questions and comments.
We were pleased to welcome Dr. Christy Sutherland, Medical Director of PHS Community Services, as the keynote speaker to precede PAN’s Annual General Meeting. She spoke on the topics of a safer drug supply and the question of decriminalization.
Dr. Christy Sutherland is a family doctor and diplomat of the American Board of Addiction Medicine who works in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side providing care to Canada’s most vulnerable population. Dr. Sutherland is the Education Physician Lead with the BC Centre on Substance Use and the Medical Director of the Portland Hotel Society where she leads a team of physicians and nurses who are embedded in low barrier, harm reduction projects, as well as the lead physician for the Rapid Access to Consultative Expertise (RACE) line.
She received her MD at Dalhousie University and completed her Family Medicine Residency at UBC in 2010. Dr. Sutherland was recognized as the 2018 British Columbia Family Physician of the Year, as well as the recipient of a City of Vancouver Award for Excellence in 2019. We have been privileged to have Dr. Sutherland work with us previously and were thrilled to have her speak about her work in relation to substance use healthcare and advocacy.