$450,000 grant given for VIU psychedelic therapy treatment study

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Island Health’s top doctor alarmed over COVID-19 case count

Vancouver Island's Chief Medical Officer is sounding the alarm about the rising case counts in the health region. Dr. Richard Stanwick says there have been 500 new cases of the virus recorded in Island Health since Christmas. Close to 200 are the result of an outbreak within the Cowichan Tribes, but Stanwick says case counts are rising everywhere.

"What has given us some concern, is there has been evidence of community spread in the Duncan area. We've also seen it emerging in Nanaimo and just in the last day or so we're seeing an uptick in cases on the south island. So we have tools at hand and if people would just practise them to keep this virus under control until we can get more vaccines in arms."—Island Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Richard Stanwick.

Stanwick says some cases are the result of people not wearing masks or keeping their distance in workplaces, but most are the result of gatherings during Christmas and New Year’s. He says the fear is with Chinese New Year, BC Family Day and Valentine’s Day on the horizon, people will ignore health orders to stay within their households. He says currently, 700 Islanders are in isolation because they have had contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus.

A treatment program for PTSD sees positive results

A unique psychedelic therapy has led to a five-year, $450,000 grant for a nursing professor at Vancouver Island University. Dr. Shannon Dames developed a 12-week program that uses the drug, ketamine along with group therapy to manage depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The first group of health care workers has completed the treatment program. Dames says she chose health care workers to take part in the therapy because of the nature of their work.

"Health care prof are a high-risk population. We know PTSD, depression and a whole lot of other mental health conditions we are at much higher rates and health care providers and really anyone that in a high stimulus and trauma-laden work environments, it leads to people turning themselves off so they can continue to serve others which is really difficult to address with typical psychotherapy and typical pharmaceuticals.”
—Dr. Shannon Dames.

Dames says the results of the therapy are impressive, with all 16 participants showing no signs of PTSD after completing 12 weeks of treatment. The nearly half-million-dollar grant from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and the Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation will allow for more groups to receive the therapy, as well as a peer-reviewed research project and by next January, the first course in Canada to offer a certificate program to train therapists and other health care providers.