Beyond addiction: connections to the future - Drug and Alcohol Nurses of Australasia 2009 Conference

• Date:

  24 - 26 June 2009

• Location:

  Gold Coast, Queensland

• Category:

  Some Indigenous content

Overview

The Drug and Alcohol Nurses of Australasia (DANA) aims to provide a professional forum for drug and alcohol nurses and other health professionals interested in the area, to come together to discuss innovations in the field and challenges for the future at this "Beyond addiction: connections to the future" conference.

The conference will include an Indigenous stream.

Keynote speakers:

• Paul Dillon has worked in the area of drug education for 25 years, the past 13 years of these at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre where his key role has been to disseminate research findings to policy makers, drug and alcohol workers and the general public. Through his own business, Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia (DARTA), Paul is contracted to provide regular updates on current drug trends within the community. Paul regularly provides media comment and has appeared on television programs including Sunrise, TODAY and A Current Affair discussing topical issues. He also hosted a regular national radio program dealing with youth drug issues on Triple J for seven years.
• Dr Glenys Dore is the Medical/Clinical Director for the Northern Sydney Drug and Alcohol Service. After graduating in 1991 Glenys inadvertently found herself in the position of Medical Director for methadone services in Dunedin, New Zealand, when no-one else was willing to take up the position. Following this role she has worked in both General Adult Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. Her areas of special interest include dual diagnosis, opioid treatment, prescription drug misuse, acute withdrawal management, methamphetamine psychosis and PTSD.
• Professor Dennis Gray is a Deputy Director at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology, where he established the Institute’s Indigenous Australian Research Program. He is a leading researcher in this area and has a long history of conducting collaborative research with Indigenous community-controlled organisations. Professor Gray has published extensively on Indigenous substance misuse issues, including a co-authored book Dealing with Alcohol: Indigenous Usage in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and he has been invited to present on his research in various national and international forums. His research has had demonstrable outcomes at the national, state/territory and regional/local levels and in 2006 his research team was awarded the National Alcohol and Drug Award for Excellence in Research.
• David Kavanagh was educated at Sydney and Stanford Universities. He has held senior academic posts at the Universities of Sydney and Queensland, and currently holds a Research Chair at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation and School of Psychology and Counselling at Queensland University of Technology. He has over 140 publications, and an extensive grant record. His research focuses on the nature and management of addiction, both alone and with other mental disorders, prevention of relapse, and increasing access to interventions using postal and internet delivery.
• Doug Sellman is a psychiatrist, addiction medicine specialist and Director of the National Addiction Centre, New Zealand. The Centre, which has developed into a lead research and training unit within the national addiction treatment field, is dedicated to improving treatment for people with addiction-related problems. In 2005 Doug was promoted to a Personal Chair in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch. Since 1994 his clinical work has been primarily as consultant psychiatrist to the addiction treatment stream of the Youth Specialty Service in Christchurch, New Zealand.
• Ingrid van Beek is a Public Health and Addiction Medicine physician who has been the Director of the Kirketon Road Centre since 1989. In 2000 Ingrid was seconded to be the foundation Medical Director of Australia's first Medically Supervised Injecting Centre, a position she held for eight years. A Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine of the University of NSW, Ingrid recently received the NSW Public Health Association’s 2008 Public Health Impact Award. She has also been inducted onto the Honour Roll at the National Drug and Alcohol Awards in recognition of her work among marginalised populations in Kings Cross over the past 20 years.

Abstract submissions close 13 February 2008

HealthInfoNet Cafe

This conference was organised by the Drug and Alcohol Nurses of Australasia (DANA) and held at Surfers Paradise, 24-26 June 2009. Conference attendants were people working in nursing, and have a particular interest in addressing substance misuse.

The first day of the conference consisted of two workshops: Clinical supervision and What is advanced practice in alcohol and drug nursing?

Keynote and other presentations took place on 25 and 26 June. Presentations which had specific Indigenous content included:

• Dennis Gray and Coralie Ober: Addressing Indigenous substance-related harm: a long way to go
  
• Patricia Gibbs and Steve Foster: Yarning with a purpose - the pathways and outlook for Nungas giving up the grog and gunja
• Charlotte de Crespigny: Working together: advancing coordinated care of Aboriginal people with comorbidity
• Coralie Ober: Developing community resources to strengthen partnerships to address substance abuse issues in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
  

Senior Research Officer Ineke Krom from the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet conducted a HealthInfoNet cafe at the conference on 25 and 26 June. The HealthInfoNet cafe provided the conference attendees with the opportunity to see how the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet can help support people working, studying or interested in addressing Australian Indigenous substance misuse.

Contacts

Emma Fernance
DANA2009 Event Manager
Ph: (07) 3831 3788
Fax: (07) 3831 9246
Email: e.fernance@guild.org.au

Links

• View information: Call for Papers (PDF - 3.4 MB)
• View website: Drug and Alcohol Nurses of Australasia 2009 Conference