2014 NDARC Annual Research Symposium

Etty Matalon is a Clinical Psychologist and the National Clinical Training Manager for the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre (NCPIC). Etty is also a Consultant who runs her own private practice that provides relevant workplace training and seminars and was the past State President of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy for five years. She has 20 years clinical experience in the Alcohol and Other Drug Field having worked at two major teaching hospitals in Sydney; as the Clinical Co-ordinator for a women's detoxification and rehabilitation service where she introduced a Cognitive Behavioural Treatment Program and as the Program Manager at a Private Psychiatric Hospital. Throughout her career she has worked closely with NDARC and has provided her clinical services in relation to several trials and clinical expertise with respect to several publications.Etty taught Drug and Alcohol studies at the Institute of TAFE and has facilitated over 200 workshops and training seminars within Education, Health Services and the Defence Forces relating to Brief Intervention for Cannabis Use Disorders, Alcohol Treatment Guidelines. She has also run Relapse Prevention groups for inmates within Corrective Services.

Dr Marian Shanahan is a member of the Drug Policy Modelling Program (DPMP) at NDARC. Her PhD examined the costs and benefits of various cannabis policies and involved the completion of a substantial cost benefit analysis, a contingent valuation study and a discrete choice experiment. Dr Shanahan is an experienced health economist who has applied health economics principles to a diverse range of disease and structural issues in the health sector. This includes analysing large linked data sets, assessing hospital efficiency and the introduction of new technologies.  She has previously evaluated the economic costs of treatment and health services utilisation by a cohort study of heroin users and has been involved in evaluations of a number of pharmacotherapies and other treatments for illicit drug and alcohol misuse.  In addition she has been involved in economic evaluations of care for those with high risk antenatal problems as well as projects in the field of IVF. Dr Shanahan's current interests include assessing the costs and benefits of policies for heroin, cannabis and other illicit drugs; using discrete choice experiments to explore societal preferences for drugs policies;  and assessing the costs and outcomes of police diversion programs for cannabis.

 

Professor Michael Farrell is the Director of NDARC. He moved to Sydney from London in March 2011 following his appointment to NDARC. Prior to joining NDARC he was Professor of Addiction Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London. His extensive research interests include treatment evaluation, including the development of the National Treatment Outcomes Profile, a brief outcomes measurement instrument for drug and alcohol dependence. He has a long standing interest in drug dependence in prisons and within the wider criminal justice system. He has been a member of the WHO Expert Committee on Drug and Alcohol Dependence since 1995 and chaired the WHO External Evaluation of the Swiss Heroin Trial. Professor Farrell has chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Abuse (EMCDDA) from 2007 to the present.

 

Professor Steve Allsop has been involved in policy, prevention and treatment research and practice and professional development for health, police, education, and community organisations for almost 30 years. He has managed prevention, policy and treatment services. As Professor and Director of the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) at Curtin University he is Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Abuse. He has previously worked as the A/Executive Director, Drug and Alcohol Office, Western Australia and the Director of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction, Flinders University of South Australia.

 

Dr Jan Breckenridge is currently the Discipline Convener for the Bachelor of Social Work Program in the School of Social Sciences and Co-Convener of the Gendered Violence Research Network  - a cross-Faculty research initiative of the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences and Law, UNSW.  Jan has worked and researched in the areas of trauma, domestic and sexual violence and child abuse since 1986.  Her research expertise covers the interdisciplinary fields of criminology, women’s and gender studies and the intervention contexts of counselling, community and policy practice.  Jan is currently Co-Convener of the Inaugural Asia Pacific Conference on Gendered violence and Violations to be held at UNSW in February 2015.

 

Superintendent Pat Paroz is the Commander of Drug and Alcohol Coordination for the NSW Police Force. He joined the NSW Police Force in 1983 working in a number of metropolitan Local Area Commands including Liverpool, Campbelltown, Holroyd and Parramatta and he was promoted to the rank of Superintendent in 2004. He has held the position of Local Area Commander in Camden, the Blue Mountains and Macquarie Fields. In 2011 he was awarded the Australian Police Medal for distinguished service to the community and particularly for his work with disadvantaged young people. He embraces the concept of lifelong learning, having completed an Advanced Diploma in Human Resource Management, a Diploma in Public Safety (Emergency Management), a Graduate Certificate in Applied Management and a Graduate Diploma in Public Administration.

 

Ralph Kelly is the father of Thomas Kelly, and founder and director of the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation. The Foundation was established in 2012 and launched in September 2013 to help curb the kind of alcohol-fuelled violence that robbed Thomas of his life. The Foundation's vision is to foster a more responsible drinking culture and ultimately a safer and healthier community, so that everyone can enjoy Australia's streets without fear or intimidation of a violent, sexual or unprovoked attack. The foundation has been working closely with the NSW State Government, City of Sydney, St. Vincent’s Hospital, NSW Police, schools, sports communities and the corporate sector – a small army of people wanting change to ensure that the foundations mission of ensuring that all of our children come home safely can one day be met.

 

Professor Don Weatherburn is Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research in Sydney and is an Adjunct Professor with the School of Social Science and Policy at UNSW. He is a regular commentator on issues to do with crime reporting and has published widely on topics including drug law enforcement policy, liquor-licensing enforcement, the economic and social correlates of crime, criminal justice administration, juvenile recidivism and crime prevention. His latest book is Arresting Incarceration - pathways out of Indigenous imprisonment (2014). He was awarded a Public Service Medal in January 1998 and made a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2006.