NDARC annual symposium registration opens May 23

Translating the evidence: drug and alcohol research at the coalface

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre’s Annual Symposium 2011 will once again focus on one of the biggest challenges facing the alcohol and other drug sector: integrating research evidence into public policy and clinical practice.

“This has been a recurring theme of our Symposium over the past few years,” says NDARC Director Professor Michael Farrell. “While the research and the findings may change, the onus on us as a research community to ensure those findings are integrated into public policy and clinical practice remains the same.”

Senior NDARC researchers will present their findings at the University of NSW on Tuesday 30 August 2011 in an exciting and issue rich program which focuses on some of the most complex and hard to treat cases as well as tackling community and family based challenges around alcohol consumption in Australia.

“It is very easy as researchers to get caught up in the endless cycle of grant writing, publication and more grant writing and to lose sight of the fact that the very purpose of the new knowledge which we are generating is to ensure that both policy and practice are guided by the best available evidence,” says Professor Farrell.

“We need in effect to ensure that we do not as academics end up talking to ourselves. Which is why we encourage a broad audience from the sector to attend what we believe is a very important day in the NDARC calendar.”

The opening session of the Symposium will be chaired by Simon Cotterell, Assistant Secretary of the Drug Strategy Branch and will focus on the need for interagency co- operation in treating some of the most complex and hard to treat cases: clients with significant co-morbidities; the homeless and parents with entrenched substance use issues. Session two, chaired by David McGrath, Director of Mental Health and Drug Programs at NSW Health will look at alcohol, communities and families and will include a presentation of the final findings from the groundbreaking Alcohol Action in Rural Communities (AARC) project.

In the afternoon Dr John Herron, chair of the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) will chair a session looking at a range of illicit drugs, including cannabis and methamphetamine. In this session one of the speakers, Marian Shanahan, will present findings from her PhD which assesses the economic consequences of cannabis policy and which has significant implications for the decriminalisation debate.

Finally the afternoon session, chaired by Professor Andrew Lloyd of UNSW’s Faculty of Medicine, will look at entrenched drug users. Professors Michael Farrell and Kate Dolan will present findings from their work with prison populations. Professor Shane Darke will look at the ageing heroin user presenting material from his new book: The Life of the Heroin User, typical beginnings, trajectories and outcomes.

Registration is now open.

For more information visit: http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/NDARCWeb.nsf/page/Symposium

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) Annual Symposium 2011

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Venue: John Niland Scientia Building, University of New South Wales

New Horizons: Integrating research findings, public policy and clinical practice