UVIC HOME TO NEW ADDICTIONS RESEARCH CENTRE

The B.C. Addictions Foundation is providing UVic and its partners with
$10 million to operate a research centre focused solely on addictions.

The Centre for Addictions Research of B.C. (CAR-BC) is based on a
partnership agreement with the University of British Columbia, Simon
Fraser University and the University of Northern B.C. As such, its
expertise is province-wide.

"This is a wonderful opportunity to consolidate many activities in the
addiction field and advance our understanding in the area,
particularly when it comes to youth," says Dr. Bonnie Leadbeater
(psychology), CAR-BC's founding director and the co-director of UVic's
centre for youth and society.

The centre's mandate will include a range of addictions research,
including substance abuse and problem gambling.

A recent Statistics Canada report states that 10 per cent of Canadians
aged 15 years and above are dependent on alcohol or drugs. Although
such addictions have long been recognized as preventable, effective
strategies to combat them continue to be elusive. This stems in part
from the complex causes of addictions, and from the lack of research
focused on identifying best practices for their prevention and treatment.

Addictions research has traditionally been conducted within separate
disciplines, limiting the transfer of knowledge across disciplinary
boundaries.

Research conducted by the new centre will identify best practices,
perform research across disciplines, and foster partnerships that
build on the research strengths of UVic and other B.C. universities.
This will include expertise in the biomedical causes of addictions,
the social dimensions of addictions - particularly those related to
youth and aboriginal health - and health service delivery to remote
populations.

In its inaugural year, the centre will tackle research into fetal
alcohol syndrome, addictions related to mental illness, and prevention
of addiction among youth.

"Until now, when it came to addictions, there wasn't an opportunity to
co-ordinate all of the research efforts in B.C.," says Leah Hollins,
chair of the B.C. Addictions Foundation. "We picked UVic to head the
centre because of its strong foundation in interdisciplinary research,
most notably through UVic's centre for youth and society, as well as
its solid background in conducting community-based research. With UVic
at the helm we hope to encourage more people to enter the field of
addictions research."

The centre is already underway. It has an advisory board composed of
university, community and government partners and is creating research
units at each of the partner universities.

B.C.'s provincial health officer, Dr. Perry Kendall, is a member of
the advisory board and the former president and CEO of the Ontario
Addiction Research Foundation. "B.C., with its substantial and
particular challenges, has needed such a centre for at least a decade.
I'm really pleased to see its creation," he says. "There's huge
potential here, and the centre will be its catalyst."

Along with Leadbeater, there are two other UVic faculty on the
centre's advisory board: board chair Dr. Irving Rootman (human &
social development) and Dr. Martin Taylor, the university's vice
president research.

For more information on the centre contact Connie Carter at 472-5305
or ccarter@uvic.ca.