While writing this paper and thinking back to past practice experiences, there is one individual who stands out in my mind who suffers from substance use disorder. I met this individual (DM) in the Daly Pavilion where she was detoxing. In the Daly, it is uncommon to admit patients for the sole purpose of detoxing; however, DM had quite a unique and complex past. This individual grew up in the low-income area of Toronto with her mother who was a single parent. She and her mother were viewed to be in the lower income bracket for her mother did not have a steady source of income and spent a great deal of her income on her heroin addiction. When DM was eleven years old, her mother overdosed on heroin and died. This unfortunate situation lead DM
