Commentary
Patient, prisoner or person?
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Correspondence: Dan Small dansmall@portlandhotel.com
Director PHS Community Services Society, 20 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 1G6, Canada
Research Associate, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada
Harm Reduction Journal 2006, 3:23 doi:10.1186/1477-7517-3-23
Published: 7 August 2006Abstract
Case studies provide rich descriptions of significant vignettes that highlight atypical systemic or clinical problems and identify potentially important research questions. The case study presented by Venters, Razvi, Tobia and Drucker (2006) describes an unfortunate set of events pertaining to an individual's experience as they were failed by s several systems all at once and neglected for having had experience with an addiction. This commentary provides some remarks on the case study with respect to differing institutional narratives as they pertain to lived experience in the context of everyday life. It is suggested that, in the special case of addiction, the mistreatment of the subject of the case study, Mr. Ortiz, is not an exception to the norm, but the norm itself for people living with addictions and their families.