Anja Busse, Christiel Macdonald and Dr Winifred Asare-Doku presented at the NDARC Webinar Series on Thursday, 13 April
The seminar provided an overview of UNODC’s work on the treatment of drug use disorders with a specific focus on efforts that support health and justice collaboration to increase access to health services for people with drug use disorders in contact with the criminal justice system. UNODC’s work on the treatment of drug use disorders is guided by the UNODC/WHO International Standards for the Treatment of Drug Use Disorders (UNODC/WHO, 2020) which are being implemented in the framework of technical assistance projects around the world. To support the dissemination of the Standards, UNODC and WHO in collaboration with other partners have developed a Quality Assurance toolkit for drug use disorder treatment services and systems. An area of special attention in the implementation of the Standards is increased health/justice collaboration to ensure people with drug use disorders in contact with the criminal justice system are not being left behind. UNODC and WHO has developed guidance and is implementing efforts to promote alternative measures to conviction or punishment for relevant offences of a minor nature and to increase access to healthcare. UNODC has worked recently with NDARC to identify specific risk factors for women with drug use disorders and review effective interventions for women with drug use disorders in contact with the criminal justice system, and the findings from this research will also be presented.
About the speakers
Anja Busse is currently on sabbatical leave from her position as Programme Officer with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and a visiting fellow with NDARC. Since 2005 she has worked with the Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section of UNODC, where she coordinates the organization’s global projects on drug use disorder treatment and care, including the UNODC-WHO Programme on Drug Use Disorder Treatment and Care, aiming to support Member States in their efforts to improve accessibility and quality of treatment and care services. In her function at UNODC, she oversees project implementation in more than 25 countries around the world and has been involved in the development and dissemination of technical guidance documents.
Winifred Asare-Doku is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NDARC and a credentialled Clinical Psychologist. Among other research projects she is involved in, Winifred is currently the Project Evaluation Coordinator for the Kava Importation Pilot Program. This evaluation aims to determine the impact of changes in the amount of kava imported into Australia and its associated social, cultural, economic and health effects. She also works on a range of different projects with national and international collaborators.
Christel Macdonald joined NDARC in 2019, after completing a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours) at the University of New South Wales. She is a PhD candidate and a research assistant. Christel's PhD thesis focuses on the factors that influence mental health court diversion and she is supervised by Prof. Don Weatherburn and Prof. Michael Farrell. As a research assistant, Christel is currently working under Prof. Louisa Degenhardt on a systematic review examining the impact of interventions to reduce drug use-related harms among people who experience incarceration.