On May 25th in St. Johns the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) and the National Recovery Advisory Committee (NRAC) announced the Canadian Survey: Life in Recovery from Addiction findings. Recovery is linked to positive citizenship — engagement with family, friends, the community and the workforce.
The September 4 – 10th, Recovery Week, inspired by the survey’s findings, includes the Recovery Capital Conference of Canada and Recovery Day BC. The September 7-8th educational conference, features international speakers, followed by a free street festival on September 9th in New Westminster BC.
The recovery advocacy movement is being heard across Canada. Recovery advocates continue to alert policy makers to the millions of people, once suffering silently from addiction, who now live healthy, drug-free and engaged lives. This is possible with the help of evidence-based Recovery Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC).
British Columbia as well as Canada is facing an overdose epidemic. At the Recovery Capital Conference of Canada delegates will learn about how Canadians receiving Opioid agnostic therapies has skyrocketed since 2010, unlike Portugal who claims a drastic reduction receiving similar treatment and the lowest mortality rate from overdoses. Before Vancouver considers decriminalization or legalization, we must talk and take pause to reevaluate our systems of care.
Decriminalization and legalization may be on the minds of harm reduction advocates, but this may not be the pathway that the media-quoted “Portuguese Experience” charted. The full account of the Portugal Model and what BC and Canada could take from it to support Canada’s efforts in saving lives during the opioid overdose crisis will be explored during the Conference. Dr. João Goulão, Portugal, a keynote Speaker among other international addiction recovery professionals will speak during the two day conference.
The City of New Westminster will host Stakeholder meetings during recovery week so that policy makers, government, health authorities and community organizations can both attend Dr. Goulão presentation and come together to foster meaningful dialogue about recovery capital recovery oriented systems of care, and resilience to inform policies, and practices. Addiction research, often identifies on pharmaceutical interventions as best practice, whereas Recovery research focuses its efforts on quality of life – showing recovery is a realistic and viable outcome.
This conference seeks to eliminate silos and move our recovery communities towards the creation of better comprehensive systems of health care for all Canadians. Opiate replacement therapy is not going to solve the overdose crisis on its own; recovery capital must be fostered. Simply put, Recovery Capital, at the individual and systems level is the breadth and depth of internal and external resources that can be drawn upon to initiate and sustain Recovery from substances.
The 6th annual Recovery Day BC located at 6th and 6th in Uptown New Westminster will see over 8,000 people celebrating recovery from addiction and mental health. For those who want to learn more about local mental health and addiction services, there will be over 50 health and wellness information booths to gather information from. The festival will also feature a live music stage, a street circus celebrating Canada 150, a TEDx Speaker Style Stage, Kids Zone, Memorial Tent, a Province wide Moment of Silence to honour the victims of the overdose crisis at 3 pm, Healing Circle, and a research gathering exhibit.
REGISTER TODAY for the conference.
More details on Recovery Day here – www.RecoveryDayBC.com
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