South Asian community health workers welcome new low-risk alcohol guidance

published on January 26, 2023 by Camille Bains in Toronto Star

A doctor who treats addiction at a clinic specifically for South Asian patients says Canada’s new guidance on alcohol bolsters his efforts to convey the message about associated harms to a community that is at higher risk for conditions such as heart disease.

“I’m really happy to finally hear that there is support from objective guidelines for the information that we already knew,” said Dr. Parm Brar, who works at the Roshni Clinic in Surrey, B.C., which opened in 2017 and provides services in Punjabi and Hindi.

“This is something that we can use as part of our resources as far as being able to say to people, ‘Well, look, there’s this objective evidence for this, that it’s harming you,’” Brar said of updated guidance by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction…