Dr. Gabor Maté is a renowned speaker and bestselling author of the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction. His work draws on cutting-edge science to illuminate where and how addictions originate and he calls for a more compassionate approach. His expertise ranges topics including addiction, stress and childhood development.
Dr. Maté is the keynote speaker opening the "Increasing our effectiveness serving people with mental health and addiction issues" plenary at the Shift the Conversation: Community Health and Wellbeing primary health care conference; organized to promote the best possible health and wellbeing for everyone in Ontario.
Dr. Maté’s, work forces us to reconsider the roots of addiction, trauma, and instead look at social context: a person’s health status is a reflection of the relationship with the physical, emotional and social environment. His call to action is that personal responsibility cannot be separated from societal responsibility and the communities in which we are embedded.
Dr. Maté answered our questions about effective primary care and the links between public policy, the determinants of health and addiction.
Read on for a conversation with Dr. Gabor Maté and be amoung the first to learn about his workshop to be presented to a select group at the conference. >>
| Following his keynote address, Dr. Gabor Maté will be giving a more intimate workshop on June 3rd. Register now for your opportunity to attend this ground-breaking learning session. |
# A conversation with Dr. Gabor Maté
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the focus of your work.
I’m am medical doctor recently retired, after twenty years in family practice and palliative care, and twelve years as an addiction physician in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. For two years I was the detox physician above Insite, North America’s only supervised injection site. My books and lectures explore the long term health consequences of early trauma and the human potential for healing.
2. During your plenary session at the conference we will focus on the role of “effective comprehensive primary care” in addressing mental health and addictions. Can you tell us what this looks like to you?
The first thing to understand is that mental illness and addictions are not genetic brain diseases but the consequences of early life trauma. Both the physiology of the brain and the psychology of the mind develop under the impact of the environment. It is limited and limiting to view these conditions purely in biological or only in behavioural terms. To help people heal, we need to understand the sources of their suffering and provide the conditions necessary for overcoming the traumatic imprints of early life programming.
3. What are your views on the social determinants of health, early childhood and the links to mental health and drug addiction?
It is clear from the research data that what we call the social determinants--race, class, gender, economic status—have significant lifelong effects on human physiology, brain development and on our capacity to respond positively or negatively to the stresses of life. Appreciating the powerful impact of these factors help us take the blame off individuals and to help foster conditions that prevent ill health or, where necessary, promote healing.
4. Public-health experts released a report in 2012 that called for 5 safe-injection sites in Ontario. The then Health Minister, Deb Matthews, responded that the province had no plans to implement the experts’ recommendations but that, “…we are always prepared to listen to good advice, and we make our decisions based on evidence.” How would your work and what you have learned inform this drug policy?
I am encouraged the Minister is committed to “listen to good advice” and to “make decisions based on evidence.” There is no shortage of either, when it comes to the life-, health-, and money-saving benefits of supervised injection facilities. One need but consult the published literature, dozens of peer-reviewed studies.
5. What is the link between public policy and addiction?
Any public policy that punishes addiction promotes addiction, since stress is the major factor driving relapse.
6. If you were the premier where would you allocate health spending?
I would begin with promoting high-quality holistic pre-natal care and support for families at risk.
The prevention of all health problems, from addiction to depression, from diabetes to cardiovascular disease, must being early in life. The sooner we provide it, the less costly such prevention is and the greater the savings of the burden of illness, let alone the financial savings.
7. What are you working on now? Future plans?
I maintain a very busy travel/speaking schedule throughout North America. I’m also at work on my next book, to be published in 2016: Toxic Culture: Trauma, Illness and Healing In Our Materialistic Society.
Following his keynote address, Dr. Gabor Maté will be giving a more intimate workshop on June 3rd. Register now for your opportunity to attend this session.
Learning session D1 - Wednesday, June 3 - 11 a.m.
#Workshop description:
The science of compassion, addiction treatment, prevention and harm reduction
Both science and compassion call for humane attitudes towards the marginalized and the vulnerable: science tells us how trauma leads to addiction, mental illness and dysfunction; compassion allows us to put that knowledge into practice by creating conditions that lead to healthy development and healing.
This session will present key principles behind trauma-informed care and guidelines towards creating a recovery-oriented model focusing on empowerment. Harm reduction will be explained not as enabling substance use but as a necessary step towards restoring dignity.
Presented by: Dr. Gabor Maté, renowned speaker and bestselling author of the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction.
Theme: Breaking Down Barriers
