Friday October 21, 2011 8:30am - 12:00pm
Fundamentals of Addiction Medicine for the Dental Health Professional
Dr. Charl Els, MCChB, FCPysch, MMedPsych
 |
|
Course Outline
This session offers an overview of the broad field of Addiction Medicine, as relevant to Dental Health Professionals. It conceptualizes “addiction” as a prevalent, chronic, relapsing bona fide medical disorder, amenable to treatment. It describes the features of the bio-psychosocial-spiritual model as well as the public health model for understanding addiction encountered in Canadian dental healthcare settings.
This course focuses on the principles of safe and effective treatment of substance-related disorders, with emphasis on the essential components of a comprehensive assessment, matching patients with appropriate multimodal treatment interventions, as well as monitoring progress and effectiveness of treatment.
Biography
Dr. Charl Els is a fellowship-trained psychiatrist, addiction specialist, and a medical review officer. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Addiction Medicine and a consultant at LifeMark Health. Dr. Els is an Associate adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta’s School of
Public Health and Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and has authored numerous journal publications and chapters in textbooks and has presented his work in many countries.
He volunteers for a local Charity and enjoys playing golf.