2009 Pamela Fralick Forum

In October 2009, CAMH’s North Ontario Area office of Provincial Services collaborated with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) to host the Pamela Fralick forum; a forum named after Pamela Fralick, former Chair of the CAMH Board of Trustees aimed at increasing understanding of addiction and mental health issues and helping Ontarians make informed decisions about their health care.  This year’s forum: “Addiction by Prescription – preventing and treating opioid dependence” focused on informing physicians, addiction, health and other professionals about the benefits and risks of prescribed opioids and how to treat dependency. The forum was divided into two key parts: one for physicians (and those who can prescribe opioids) and the second for an inter-professional audience in health, addictions, mental health, pharmacy, emergency response, policing and others. As an added bonus, NOSM’s post-graduate residents also had the opportunity to hear from keynote speaker Dr. David Marsh, Medical Director – Addiction, HIV/AIDS & Aboriginal Services from Vancouver Coastal Health as part of their academic lectures to increase their clinical knowledge.

Dr. Marsh’s presentation was held at NOSM’s Sudbury campus and videoconferenced via OTN (Ontario Telemedicine Network) to 20 different sites across the north for physicians and over 30 sites for the inter-professional audience.  Each session also included a brief presentation on Methadone Maintenance resources from Ms. Christine Bois, CAMH’s Manager of the OpiAte Project.  The inter-professional forum also included an extended panel facilitated by Reggie Caverson, a Senior Health Promotion Consultant from CAMH, with presentations from Ms. Cristine Rego, CAMH’s Provincial Aboriginal Services Training Consultant on Aboriginal issues, Dr. Beth Sproule an Advanced Practice Pharmacist/Clinical Scientist from CAMH on current research, and Kyla, a person with lived experience who is currently on MMT. The panel was followed by a Q&A facilitated by Sherry Mongeau, Continuing Education Development Coordinator from NOSM.

During the presentation, Dr. Marsh highlighted current research into opioid addiction, the importance of balancing the risk of addiction while managing/treating pain, the role that MMT plays to address opioid dependency and the need to offer other opioid addiction treatment options such as buprenorphine which has been approved in Canada but is still not covered under most extended health care drug plans. These presentations can be viewed via NOSM’s website at: http://normedstream.lakeheadu.ca/1.aspx

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