Professor Tonia Nicholls and PhD candidate, Amanda Butler presented at the first annual B.C. Concurrent Disorders Conference, hosted by PHSA’s BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services.
The BCCDC was a one-day free virtual event dedicated to advancing knowledge and building capacity among mental health and substance use professionals who treat people with complex concurrent disorders. “Concurrent disorder” describes a condition in which a person has both a mental illness and a substance use problem. People with complex concurrent disorders are vulnerable and extremely ill. Many experience high degrees of distress, impaired cognitive functioning, and homelessness, and have histories of trauma, self-harm, and overdose events. This population is also overrepresented in criminal justice contexts. In these talks, Professor Nicholls and PhD candidate, Amanda Butler present on the STAIR Model and Jail Screening Assessment tool and the characteristics of the BC Corrections Population from a large population based study of mental health and substance use disorders among people incarcerated in BC between 2009-2017 (over142, 000 admissions; representing > 47,000 distinct individuals).
You may access the talks here