Dr Anne-Marie Laslett

Senior Research Fellow at the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) and the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR)
February 2016
Each issue we ask someone from the alcohol and other drug sector to share a little about their work and life.

This weekend I will... paddle out in my kayak and play waboba with my teenagers and husband and love the heat and sky

I wish I’d never... made this guy on the train sad when I was young by not controlling my horrified look when I was scared by his disfigurement

I’d originally planned to work... as an opthalmologist (and cure the world of colour blindness)

The qualities I most value in my colleagues are... kindness and intelligence

I’ll never forget... (where I put my keys - I wish) but more likely my time in Japan as an exchange student, the best days of my life - children's births, etc. and the sublime moments when everything is in harmony

If I had more time, I’d... write a diary again

I’m most scared of... things happening to my kids that they cannot cope with

For my next holiday... I want to go with my daughter somewhere they speak Spanish

I can’t get enough of... holidays with my family

I’m really terrible at... finishing the end of sentences

My big hope for the drug and alcohol sector is... that it can be supported well enough to enable clients and their children to prosper and love life

The sector’s biggest challenge going forward is... finding enough funding, and being able to manage complex inter-generational and family problems, maintaining secure research funding for individuals and organisations.

Dr Anne-Marie Laslett

Dr Anne-Marie Laslett is a Senior Research Fellow at the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) and the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR). While she graduated as  a dentist, her 20 year career (largely at Turning Point until recently) has involved examining a wide range of health and social health problems.

The emphasis of Anne-Marie’s research (and her PhD completed in 2013) is on alcohol's involvement in child abuse and neglect cases, both in child protection and health systems as well as in the general population.

Anne-Marie also currently directs the Range and Magnitude of Alcohol's Harm to Others project at CAPR and is a co-investigator and technical advisor to the World Health Organization/Thai Health international collaborative research project on 'The harm to others from drinking'. National surveys of alcohol’s harm to others, service system data and qualitative interviews with families directed by Laslett have refocused research attention – long directed to the drinker – onto the effects intoxication has on others, providing insight into the magnitude and ways in which Australian children and families are affected by others’ drinking.