PEOPLE tend to start out with the best intentions when drawing on opioids for chronic pain but exactly how big dependence issues are in western Victoria has been hard for Adam Straub to quantify
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The addiction medicine specialist knows the situation is not good here. Dr Straub did his clinical training in Ballarat.
What has surprised him was there was no addiction medicine specialist for regional Victorians outside of Melbourne and Shepparton. This is what brings him back to Ballarat.
Dr Straub is set to lead western Victoria's addiction medicine clinic, based at Ballarat Community Health in Lucas and covering the Central Highlands, Grampians, Loddon and Mallee regions.
While opioid misuse and abuse has become a rampant issue in the United States, Dr Straud said there had been a slow steady increase in opioid use and complex cases in Australia. Victorians were dying.
Dr Straub said, on average, there were three to seven opioid-related deaths in Ballarat each year, plus a further one to two deaths in neighbouring shires.
In regional Victoria, opioid misuse is more for chronic pain. There are more physically hard working people who end up injured. Everyone has the best intentions.
- Dr Adam Straub
"These are just the deaths. There are quite a few presentations to hospital but the trouble in recent years has been the part of quantifying these, mostly because there has been no addiction medication specialist," Dr Straub said.
"...In regional Victoria, opioid misuse is more for chronic pain. There are more physically hard working people who end up injured. Everyone has the best intentions.
"Not everyone who uses opioids become dependent and not everyone who uses opioids misuses them.
"It's important people are using the minimum amount or opioids for the time prescribed. It's about paying attention to use if scripts are running out early or if there are concerns."
Dr Straub qualified in addiction medicine in March after three years' study with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He will also complete his general and acute care medicine training this year.
His earlier medical training was with University of Melbourne's Ballarat Rural Clinical School. He liked the city and the wider region and said it made sense to return with his specialty.
"A lot of my pre-physician training work was in emergency and critical care and throughout that time I worked with Victoria Police looking after people in police cells," Dr Straub said.
"I was exposed to a lot of people with substance use disorders and noticed they were largely under supported in the broader community.
"I began looking into how we could better support those patients and found addiction medicine as a formal specialty."
IN OTHER NEWS
The addiction medicine specialist clinic will be overseen by Orticare, one of five pharmacology area-based networks in the state focusing on harm reduction and access to treatment.
Starting next month, Dr Straub will start with one afternoon a week to gradually build up face-to-face and telehealth options for the region's most complex opioid dependency cases.
Dr Straub encouraged anyone with opioid use concerns to first speak with their general practitioner before referral to the specialist clinic. He said there were a variety of different treatment options. Ballarat Community Health also runs a suite of alcohol and other drugs treatments, call 5338 4500.
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