Diamond Foundation’s million dollar gift will tackle addiction

In first nine months of 2018, over 1,100 British Columbians died from opioid-related overdoses. Providence hospitals and care sites sit at the epicentre of this crisis, providing care to one of Canada’s most vulnerable populations.

In November 2018, St. Paul’s Foundation announced the newly-created Steven Diamond Professorship in Addiction Care Innovation at the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU), thanks to a generous $1 million gift from Vancouver’s Diamond Foundation, matched with an additional $1 million from the Foundation.

The Professorship will advance the BCCSU’s mandate to help people wherever they are on the spectrum of addiction and recovery. Working with the BCCSU and the UBC Department of Medicine, the Professorship will develop an innovative research program focused on addiction treatment and recovery as well as an education program to train health care practitioners in leading-edge, evidence-based approaches.

“Research and education will significantly reduce population harms, yield financial savings and, most importantly, improve the lives of individuals, families, and communities affected by addiction,” says Dr. Evan Wood, BCCSU’s executive director.

The team expects to announce the new clinician-scientist in spring 2019.