The type of people who work in addiction clinics can vary from pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, opiod dependency healthcare professionals and sometimes, even doctors. These people work with drug addicts to help them recover from their addictions. But what about the work conditions for these workers.
The dangers and challenges of working in these clinics can be hard. Most of these are methadone clinics that provide drug programs for recovery from addiction. The drugs mostly used are methadone and suboxone. These drugs are prescribed by a professional drug dependency expert in moderately diminishing quantities. That is the primary purpose of these clinics, to help people wane off the drugs by substituting another drug for it, then reducing the dose of that drug over a period of time. In a recent study, it was found that opioid addiction can be overcome with mindfulness.
The people working in these clinics help the addicts recover. Unfortunately however, many of the drug addicts can be difficult to deal with. Some of them hurl abuse at the clinicians and pharmacists providing them with the drugs. Some of them ask for more than their prescribed does, while other still try to obtain other prescriptions different that the ones prescribed by their physician. This is the case at many of these clinics such as Baythorn clinic in Thornhill at http://fcbaythornpharmacy.ca where there is a dedicated team of opiod clinicians working with drug addicts directly to put them on recovery programs, and some of these clinicians have reported being verbally abused by the patients in the past.
Dealing with these types of challenges can be difficult. On one side, the workers must understand that they are working with people in need. They may have psychological or mental issues, and the drug addiction makes their lives much harder. Some of these people are homeless while others live in shelters. That type of rough environment makes for rough communication. That is why dealing with these patients can be difficult. Some methadone clinics hire security, while others choose to reduce their opening hours to reduce exposure to intoxicated or high individuals.
Better Work Conditions for Drug Clinicians
The individuals working in these clinics need to band together to demand better working conditions that put their safety first. Change is needed to ensure that workers are working in a safe and comfortable atmosphere. There are many ideas for improving the safety of these places including hiring security, having cameras and ensuring that at no time there is one person working alone in the clinic. Most of the owners are supportive of these clinics and yet we have not seen any legitimate change in the labor conditions.
Action is important on this front. It will help the workers and labor force of the clinics live and work in a better place, and will result in better and more compassionate service to the drug patients.