June
15 - 20,
2008: 57th Annual Session : University of Utah School on Alcoholism & Other Drug Dependencies
Utah School about
communities, family, and friends
By Bree Watzak
From June 19–24
in 2005, I attended the General Sessions at the School on Alcoholism and
other Drug
Dependencies at the University of
Utah, set amid the foothills of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains in
Salt Lake City. The city is
peaceful, the temperatures are pleasant, and a persistent, gentle breeze
allows for enjoyable walks with
amazing views. I found the surrounding mountains to be an anchor, a
visible reassurance at
the end of each
conference day that the rest of the world was just as I had left
it. For the
conference going on inside
was a
whirlwind of change: my beliefs were
challenged, my education was questioned,
and my insulation from life’s
little horrors was stripped away.
All of that happened
on the first day, but I went back, one day at a time, until the week was
over. I went back not because
I enjoy pain, but because I was
learning and growing as a person as well as a professional. Pharmacists are
drug information
specialists who need to be
excellent communicators in order to counsel patients effectively and ensure
compliance to achieve
the best possible therapeutic
outcome. I knew this, but had forgotten that I needed to open my mind to
having a dialog with
my patients instead of lecturing
to them.
Addiction is a
disease
The School
on Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies provides students with the latest
methods and techniques for
working effectively in their
respective disciplines. Monday started out with a speech by Mervlyn
Kitashima. She spoke
about growing up in a home of
second marriages, mixed races, poverty, and alcoholism. Kitashima was an
at-risk child,
but today she prefers the term
“at-promise.” Through adversity, she found a way to prevail. I was touched
by her courage
and tenacity, and yet I caught
myself thinking this sort of presentation was tailored more for a social
worker or therapist
than a pharmacist-to-be.
The first
pharmacy-specific session was Pathophysiology of Addiction and Street
Drugs: Facts and Fallacies. It’s a mouthful
as well as a mind-full. I was back
in my comfort zone—medical name/street name, absorption, metabolism,
excretion, and
pharmacologic effects. Odds and
ends I had learned in Organs and Biochemistry were pieced together into a
giant “ah-ha”
portrait. It was fantastic! I was
looking at my notes during a break and a phrase jumped out at me: addiction
is a disease.
Nobody chooses to get a disease.
Diseases have symptoms, side effects, treatments to cure or ameliorate the
symptoms,
and people have predispositions to
diseases. Family problems could be categorized as either causes or side
effects of the
primary disease of addiction.
Reminding myself that addiction is a disease allowed me to open my mind. I
cannot look at an
addict and think “lazy,” “lack of
willpower,” “person needs to take a stand and just say no.” I have to
consult with a patient
in order to learn what disease
their medication is for, be it diabetes or alcoholism. Needless to say, I
was ready for the group
walk that evening.
Heartache and
inspiration
The General Sessions
were a full week long, with addiction presented from every angle imaginable.
There were presentations
on codependency, spirituality in
recovery, pharmacy ethics and law, treatment and counseling, humor’s role in
health care,
testimonials from recovering
pharmacists, mock interventions, and a real group therapy session from a
nearby treatment
facility. Every evening,
conference attendees could observe an actual twelve-step meeting. These
programs included Alcoholic
Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous,
and Al-Anon, a group for the families of addicts. The meetings were
emotional, but added
a face to the disease of
addiction. I was shocked by the details of addicts’ personal stories. I was
amazed by the strength it
took for some of them to get
through each day, the compassion born of shared suffering, the absolute joy
on reconnecting
with reality, and their gratitude.
It was a strange brew of heartache and inspiration.
I could say that the
Utah School is about alcohol and drug addiction, but I feel this simple
classification falls short of the
conference’s power and scope. The
skills I learned there will provide me a framework to help my patients with
drug and
alcohol addiction, eating
disorders, smoking cessation, and an understanding of children living in
homes with addiction.
The Utah experience applies to
communities, families, and friends. Student pharmacists have the
responsibility to acquire
the knowledge and counseling
skills necessary to help those in need. I believe the Utah School’s sessions
are a crucial step
along this pathway of learning.
Bree Watzak is
a third-year PharmD candidate at the University of Houston College of
Pharmacy.
She wrote this after attending the School in 2005. Bree also attended this
past June 2006
and brought with her a number of students from her College of Pharmacy.
******************************************************************************************************************
For more information go to the University of Utah web
site:
http://uuhsc.med.utah.edu/uas/.
or contact Sue Langston at the University of Utah:
slangston@utah.gov
or Keith D. Marciniak R.Ph. – APhA- ASP Liaison:
Kmarciniak@AphAnet.org
This site was last updated
04/29/08
