Dr. Dominic Tang, this year's winner of the prestigious Dr. William Hutchinson Award for distinguished contributions to health care in Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma, has generously served his community for nearly four decades.
A well-respected mentor, teacher and leader, Tang arrived in Canada from Hong Kong in 1961. He studied at the University of Manitoba, graduating in 1969 after three years of pre-med, four years of medicine and one year of internship in Winnipeg. When he and his wife decided to call Sault Ste. Marie their home, Tang joined the Group Health Centre as a general practitioner.
His interest in psychiatry soon led to a close friendship with Dr. Johann F. Schwarzl, Sault Ste. Marie's only psychiatrist at the time. With no-one to cover the psychiatrist's holidays, Tang agreed to cover 20 psychiatric in-patient beds in addition to his own patient list and hospital rounds. He continued to train formally and through his practice, until making the final decision to leave general family medicine for psychiatric practice when Schwarzl retired in 1988.
Child psychiatry
By the late 1980s, Tang had begun to practice child psychiatry. Previous to this, children and adolescents from the Sault had to travel to Sudbury for treatment. He retired from child psychiatry in 2008, but continues to see some children as out-patients.
"I have a good staff and good support from families. Without the mothers, a lot of my patients would not do well," said Tang.
He currently has two offices, providing in-patient full mental health services at Riverview Centre Psychiatric Unit, an authorized full service schedule one facility, and treating less intensive out-patients through the hospital. He typically sees six to eight in-patients and 15 to 18 out-patients three days a week.
His focus is primarily on chronic schizophrenia, clinical depression, bipolar disorder and substance abuse issues. Tang recognized the connection between mental health and addiction issues long before it was widely accepted.
"If all of us stopped drinking, I can assure you my days would be easier," he said. "If you drink, our medications don't work as well. Alcohol affects the brain and the memory so people can't make decisions as well. Drugs are also a big issue. Studies have shown that marijuana can trigger schizophrenia that may be dormant within a person."
Responding to the lack of local services for treatment of alcohol addiction in the mid- 1970s, Tang helped establish the facilities now known as the Detox Centre, where he served as clinical director, and the Ken Brown Recovery Centre, where he served as board chair. He also provided clinical support to counsellors at the Addiction Treatment Centre. His work has eased community demands on both the health-care and legal systems.
Alcohol
"With all the problems we have in health care, our psychiatry department can say that we run a very good program and provide services to the community even within budget constraints," said Tang. "According to Ministry statistics, we should have 12 psychiatrists and we currently have six."
Joy Haley is chair of the Governance Committee of the Sault Area Hospital Board and of the Selection Committee for the Hutchinson Award.
"For the last 40 years," she said, " Dr. Tang has worked tirelessly in the field of psychiatry and addictions. He was a pioneer in recognizing the link between mental health and addictions and he was willing to give his time and attention to children when we had no child psychiatrist. His presence in this community - for his patients, colleagues and staff - has always been supportive and positive."
Commenting on receiving the Hutchinson award, Tang said," I don't do this for fame or glory, but it is still nice to be recognized. A bit of publicity doesn't hurt because it is a wonderful way to promote mental health. For as long as I am healthy and as long as I enjoy doing this, I want to continue with my in-patient care and some out-patient care. If I don't enjoy it anymore, I'm out of here. You have to enjoy what you do."
