News

All three national research centres will have a strong presence at this year’s Australasian Professional Society of Alcohol and Drugs (APSAD) Conference, to be held 9-12 November in Adelaide.

The National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction’s (NCETA) Senior Project Manager, Michael White, is co-convening the conference.

NCETA staff will run a workshop on implementing child and family sensitive practices in the alcohol and other drugs (AOD) sector and present 10 papers and one poster.

Associate Professor Ted Wilkes of the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) will deliver a keynote address on ‘10+ Years On’ from the National Drug Strategy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People’s Complimentary Action Plan. NDRI staff will also run a symposium on ‘Reconceptualising addiction’ and present numerous papers and posters.

Three staff from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) will present keynote addresses, namely Professor Alison Ritter on ‘The challenges of policy research that aim to make a difference’; Professor Louisa Degenhardt on the complexities, comorbidities and consequences of pharmaceutical opioid use in Australia; and Dr Sarah Larney on ‘Harm production and harm reduction: Prisons and opioid substitution therapy’. Dr Larney’s address follows her win of the 2014 APSAD Early Career Award.  

Other sessions involving NDARC staff include a half day workshop on substance use and mental health and symposia on the natural history of heroin dependence; pharmaceutical opioid use and harms; homelessness and substance use; and AOD treatment funding, demand and planning in Australia. NDARC staff will also be represented with additional papers and posters.

The APSAD Conference is in its 34^th year and is the Australian AOD sector’s principal research meeting.