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Collaborating with clinicians and consumers to improve the uptake of integrated care in a residential mental health rehabilitation unit: A co-design approach

image - Research Focus   Connections Dec 2018

Co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders are common, are harmful to people’s wellbeing and social functioning, and are associated with disproportionately high costs to healthcare systems 1-9. The prevalence of co-occurring disorders in mental health (MH) and Alcohol and other Drug (AoD) treatment settings is sufficiently high that they are described as an ‘expectation rather than an exception’ 3.

Can we improve processes for engaging communities and services in research?

image - Anthony Shakeshaft Square

The impact of research that actively engages with communities, non-government organisations and clinical services can be fundamentally influenced by the engagement processes that researchers devise and implement. The corollary of this proposition is that establishing a pragmatic, or even evidence-based, process of change is likely to improve outcomes for communities and clients of services. So is it feasible to establish an evidence-based process for engaging communities and services in research?

A global picture of injecting drug use, HIV and anti-HCV prevalence among people who inject drugs, and coverage of harm reduction interventions

image - Sarah Larney

Understanding how many people inject drugs is critically important for the effective provision of public health and harm reduction services. However, the severe stigma that is often attached to injecting drug use, and illicit nature of this behaviour, means that it is often difficult to have a clear picture of how many people inject drugs in a given nation or region.

The New Zealand 2017 Parliamentary Drug Policy Symposium

image - Alison Ritter 005 High Res 1

There is a lot that Australian governments could learn from New Zealand. I had the pleasure of participating in the New Zealand 2017 Parliamentary Drug Policy Symposium, held on 5-6 July, 2017.  The purpose of the Symposium was to bring together community leaders, politicians, experts, practitioners and people with lived experience to discuss a new healthy approach to drug policy and drug laws.

Australia should stop beefing up its steroid laws – that won’t help users

image - Katinka Van De Ven 280

The use of image and performance enhancing drugs – in particular steroids – is a growing area of concern globally. The use of these drugs has traditionally been limited to elite athletes and professional bodybuilders. But now their use is becoming normalised as part of a fitness and beauty regime for people who want to gain muscle, become leaner, and improve their appearance.