Community
James: Good information is the miracle drug
Good information is the miracle drug
James had been struggling with diabetes for more than 15 years. His health was getting worse and he was looking at increased medication. He also has high blood pressure and consumed significant alcohol. His doctor connected him with the family nurse in the clinic.
The nurse suggested he use the diabetes libre monitor. This tool tells him immediately the result of his food intake and other lifestyle factors. When you see the result on the chart, it is a strong visual aid and you have nowhere to hide. You have to acknowledge that your choices are affecting your blood sugars. His job with the nurse’s support was first to reduce the peaks and then reduce the range of blood sugars. This tool was key to tying the information his nurse was telling him to his actions.
The nurse helped him to improve his diet and also got a dietitian to help him with certain aspects. He is now much more careful what he eats before going to bed to help with control overnight. The nurse helped him to understand how the medications work. She made it clear to him that the alcohol intake was detrimental to his health, so he stopped all intake. He could see the positive effect of weight loss as well as regular walking. His weight has gone from 206 to 156 pounds. This is back to the weight he was in his twenties. His blood sugars are now in the range of 6 to 9- the first time he has seen that in over a decade. His blood pressure is also significantly improved. At his next appointment, the team will review all of his medications and decide what he needs from here. He feels so much better. One improvement cascades to another, he was able to immediately identify more energy, better awareness, increased ability to relax, ability to sleep deeper, and better agility and movement.
He states “The libre gave me immediate feedback and the nurse was there to help me understand what it all meant and why, that information made all the difference.”
Click here for more success stories from the Primary Care Network in Red Deer.
Community
SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!
Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!
Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!
To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)
Addictions
‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy
Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.
In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.
B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.
But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.
Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.
According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”
In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.
Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.
This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.
The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”
The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.
Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.
Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.
-
COVID-191 day ago
Japanese study finds ‘significant increases’ in cancer deaths after third mRNA COVID doses
-
Business1 day ago
Maxime Bernier warns Canadians of Trudeau’s plan to implement WEF global tax regime
-
Brownstone Institute1 day ago
A Coup Without Firing a Shot
-
COVID-191 day ago
WHO Official Admits the Truth About Passports
-
Bruce Dowbiggin1 day ago
Coyotes Ugly: The Sad Obsession Of Gary Bettman
-
Energy1 day ago
Anti-LNG activists have decided that they now actually care for LNG investors after years of calling to divest
-
Freedom Convoy1 day ago
Ottawa spent “excessive” $2.2 million fighting Emergencies Act challenge
-
Frontier Centre for Public Policy1 day ago
The tale of two teachers