Morin Kristen A, Bodson Adele, Ghartey Karla, Patrick Krysten A, Knowlan Shannon, Marsh David C, Aubin Natalie, Leary Tara
Health Science North, Sudbury, ON, Canada.
ICES North, Sudbury, ON, Canada.
Subst Use. 2024 Sep 10;18:29768357241280579. doi: 10.1177/29768357241280579. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec.
An Addiction Medicine Unit (AMU) represents a promising approach to enhancing hospital care for individuals who use substances, but there is limited research to understand patients' perspectives on AMUs. Therefore, the study objectives involved exploring patients' experiences with the AMU.
Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 patients to gather their perspectives about the AMU. The AMU offers specialized inpatient addiction support, integrating medical and psychosocial interventions while facilitating connections to community supports to stabilize patients and manage addiction-related issues using a harm reduction philosophy.
Factors identified by patients that lead to positive experiences with the AMU included: efficient access to high-quality acute medical care, specialized addiction care, and additional support for non-medical needs. Patients emphasized the benefits of having peer support workers on staff, the overall positive interactions with staff, and how different these experiences were from their hospital admissions outside of the AMU. Factors identified by patients that should be considered in an AMU included: the ease of access to substances, negative interactions with other patients, and self-stigma/internalized discrimination. Also, the patient perspective reflected varied views on harm reduction. Patients' perception of the impact of an AMU overall reflected that the AMU is an effective way to deliver comprehensive treatment, to address the needs of PWUS, both medical and substance-use-related issues. They identified that the unit's intentional harm reduction philosophy facilitated access to care and positive patient-staff interactions, emphasizing the unit's progress in reducing fear and judgment and rebuilding trust in the healthcare system.
The introduction of a new AMU in a Northern urban acute care hospital in Ontario has yielded positive patient experiences. The AMU model shows potential to re-establish trust between patients and providers, but ongoing efforts are needed to address underlying stigma to be more effective.
成瘾医学科是一种很有前景的方式，可改善医院对使用成瘾物质患者的护理，但了解患者对成瘾医学科看法的研究有限。因此，本研究的目的是探索患者在成瘾医学科的经历。
对17名患者进行了定性半结构化访谈，以收集他们对成瘾医学科的看法。成瘾医学科提供专门的住院成瘾支持，整合医疗和心理社会干预措施，同时促进与社区支持的联系，以稳定患者状况，并采用减少伤害的理念处理与成瘾相关的问题。
患者认为导致在成瘾医学科有积极体验的因素包括：能高效获得高质量的急性医疗护理、专门的成瘾护理以及对非医疗需求的额外支持。患者强调了工作人员中有同伴支持工作者的好处、与工作人员的总体积极互动，以及这些经历与他们在成瘾医学科以外住院时的不同。患者认为成瘾医学科应考虑的因素包括：获取成瘾物质的难易程度、与其他患者的负面互动以及自我污名化/内化歧视。此外，患者的观点反映了对减少伤害的不同看法。患者对成瘾医学科总体影响的看法反映出，成瘾医学科是提供全面治疗、满足使用成瘾物质患者医疗和与物质使用相关问题需求的有效方式。他们指出，该科室有意采用的减少伤害理念促进了医疗服务的可及性和积极的医患互动，强调了该科室在减少恐惧和评判以及重建对医疗系统信任方面取得的进展。
安大略省北部城市一家急性护理医院引入新的成瘾医学科后，患者体验良好。成瘾医学科模式显示出重建患者与医疗服务提供者之间信任的潜力，但需要持续努力消除潜在的污名，以提高成效。
