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While committed to hospital for two weeks, Wood voluntarily changed his nursing status from practising to non-practising.

“The plan was that if I followed this treatment plan it would be converted back to practising,” he said. “I had never been someone who was using substances all the time. It was more something where at certain points in my life I ran into problems with substances.”

Before the October incident, Wood said he worked for Vancouver Coastal Health for about two years as a mental health nurse in the Downtown Eastside.

“I was a case manager for a mental health team,” he said. “I had a case load of around 50 clients with severe mental illness. So I would be responsible for managing their medications and helping them with all sorts of social issues that they encounter.”

In November, 2013, a doctor recommended a treatment program, and that Wood attend AA meetings. Wood was also to submit to random drug testing and was prohibited from accessing, handling or administering sedatives or narcotics at work for two years.

Wood attended a residential treatment program in Ontario in the spring 2014, staying for five weeks, though he took issue with their methods.

“If I questioned the 12-step philosophy or tried to discuss scientific explanations and treatments for addiction, I was labelled as ‘in denial’,” Wood said. “I was told to admit that I am powerless, and to submit to a higher power. It was unhelpful and humiliating.