Gabor Mate

Dr. Mate talks about why and how the legal and medical systems have been ineffective in the war on drugs. ”We ‘re punishing people for having been abused in the first place.” Describing observations made as a clinician at Vancouver’s InSite safe injection site and OnSite rehab facility, he reads from his forthcoming book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. See also: TV documentary about InSite.

[Image by sillygwailo.]

title Staying Alive
description An episode of investigative journalism TV show The Fifth Estate about InSite, a safe injection site in Vancouver’s bleak Downtown Eastside. Dr. Gabor Mate, who works in the detox/treatment component of the harm reduction program, sums up why people who have suffered abuse and/or mental illness get mired in cycles of addiction. Stress triggers relapse, while marginalization, stigma and homelessness make it worse. “We’ve created a system that produces the maximum amount of stress on the people who can least withstand it,” he says. Although InSite is supported by two levels of government, police, and dozens of doctors and researchers, the federal Canadian government is threatening to close it down due to their moral qualms rather than evidence. (Open letter signed by 85 scientists: PDF.)
producer CBC
featuring Hana Gartner, Darwin Fisher, Gabor Mate, David Brodrick, Shelly Tomic, Taz Prouting
format Flash
date 13/03/09
length 00:41:34
link http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2008-2009/staying_alive/video.html

Tags: brain video TV addiction mental_health abuse homelessness CanCon

title The BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Network 2009 Research Colloquium
description Live webcast all day Thursday March 5 (begins 9:00 am PST). Scheduled lectures: Professor Peter Beresford (Brunel University, London, UK): New directions in service user engagement in research, Dr. Chris Lalonde (UVic): The influence of cultural continuity on youth health trajectories, Dr. Erin Michalak (UBC): Collaborative research on psychosocial issues in bipolar disorder, Ms. Hajera Rostam (UBC): Marginalized communities and mental health and addiction service providers, and Dr. Amy Salmon (BCCEWH): Strategies for community driven knowledge translation led by and for women with addictions. PDF here. Videos will be archived online after the event.
producer BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Network
featuring Peter Beresford, Chris Lalonde, Erin Michalak, Hajera Rostam, Amy Salmon
format Flash
date 05/03/09
length unknown
link http://www.mhanet.ca/

Tags: brain video lecture mental_health cognitive depression bipolar culture psychiatry addictions treatment cancon

title Structural and functional brain changes in patients with never treated mood disorders
description Neuropsychological studies of people with depression or bipolar, and impairments in youth that may impact development. Cognitive impairments with memory, verbal abilities, and more were found in established illness and in states of remission, and in at risk youth who were asymptomatic or never been affected but had a first-degree relative with a mood disorder. With accompanying PDF and a bio on PDF.
producer BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Network 2008 Research Colloquium
featuring Glenda MacQueen, MD, FRCP(C), PhD
format Flash
date 14/02/08
length 00:58:22
link [BEWARE AUTOPLAY] http://www.mhanet.ca/media/2008-colloquium/2008colloquium-06.html

Tags: brain video lecture cog_sci cognitive depression bipolar neuropsychology neuropsychiatry neurodevelopment youth cancon

title The Agony of Jimmy Quinlan
description Homeless alcoholic “derelicts” featured in this documentary from 1970s Montreal. Life seems a big party with free food and lodging and much film imagery of men drinking booze straight from bottles, but Jimmy is “tired of being sick and tired” and tries to quit. Social attitudes have changed over time as the science of addiction, social services and harm reduction make some headway, but the religious missions and bleak outlook remain the same with more people on the street than ever. [Film includes brief unsexy nudity, NSFW.]
producer Janice Brown, for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
featuring Jimmy Quinlan
format Flash
date 1978
length 00:27:07
link http://beta.nfb.ca/film/the-agony-of-jimmy-quinlan/

Tags: brain video documentary addiction law alcoholism Canada cancon homeless vintage

Image*

title Britain’s Most Dangerous Drug
description London’s Dana Centre Science Cafe hosted a webcast discussion after a BBC Horizon screening of Is alcohol worse than ecstacy? Psychopharmacologist David Nutt was lead author on a controversial study in The Lancet* comparing the harms of substances of abuse. He and psychologist Theodora Duka join facilitator Hugh Whittall to discuss the issues. “How do the brain and body react to each stimulant as it passes into the bloodstream, and what are the long-term effects of drugs relative to their [legal] classification? If the current classification should be changed in view of the latest findings, what exactly is Britain’s most dangerous drug?” Discussions and a BBC web poll mostly judge it to be alcohol (last noted at 35%, ranked above heroin and tobacco).
producer BBC Horizon, and the Science Museum
featuring David Nutt, Theodora Duka, Hugh Whittall
format Quicktime
date 05/02/08
length near 01:00:00
link http://www.danacentre.org.uk/events/2008/02/05/360
doi 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60464-4

* NUTT, D., KING, L., SAULSBURY, W., BLAKEMORE, C. (2007). Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse. The Lancet, 369(9566), 1047-1053. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60464-4 (includes Figure 1, above)

Tags: brain webcast neuroethics addiction drugs alcohol psychopharmacology violence danger law harm bioethics

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title CAST Vancouver – CAST Launched
description Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment (CAST) (web site, with more videos and references) is a Vancouver, Canada proposal for a study to begin fall 2007 (as yet unapproved) substituting legal amphetamines for crystal meth and cocaine derivatives in chronic addicts. Similar to methadone treatment, but for stimulant abusers. What CAST fails to adequately address is mental health care for concurrent disorders. Many street addicts have serious mental illnesses and currently receive inadequate, if any, treatment in a city focussed on self-managed wellness plans while planning to close more hospital beds in 2009.
producer CTV British Columbia
featuring Mayor Sam Sullivan and team
format embedded
date 26/02/07
length 00:02:18
link http://www.castvancouver.org/cast-launched-ctv-british-columbia.html

Tags: webcast brain addiction treatment Vancouver