iN VIDEO: This Penticton doctor took new approach to treat people with alcohol use disorder | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
Subscribe

Would you like to subscribe to our newsletter?

Current Conditions Light Rainshower  13.9°C

Penticton News

iN VIDEO: This Penticton doctor took new approach to treat people with alcohol use disorder

The late Penticton physician Dr. Jeff Harries took a different approach in helping treat patients with Alcohol Use Disorder.

Harries spent 17 years out of his 30-year career taking a new approach in treating the disorder, with a combination of medicines and treatment protocols that reduce alcohol cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

“There’s a disconnect between what the science is telling us, and what’s being used on the ground. It’s a huge chasm of ignorance,” Harries said in an Interior Health produced 23-minute video.

Harries believed it was important for physicians to realize the disorder is more than a health-care problem and can impact many other parts of society.

READ MORE: New substance-use treatment beds now fully operational in B.C.

“Hope is such an important part of the recovery, for them to have hope, and for people around them to have hope,” Dr. Harries said.

Vice-chair of the Canadian Alcohol Use Disorder Society Bruce Harries said in video that a person with the disorder has a less than 1% chance of receiving appropriate medication.

There are currently six medication treatment options for the disorder.

“They won’t all work for everybody, but something will work for nearly everybody,” Harries said.


To contact a reporter for this story, email Emily Rogers or call 250-718-0428 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2022
iNFOnews

  • Popular kamloops News
View Site in: Desktop | Mobile