Colloquium: ‘Improving drug policy and practice through research’

For Melbournites:

Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use Colloquium: ‘Improving drug policy and practice through research’
Date: Monday 18 July 2011
Time: 9:30am – 5pm (registration from 9am)
Venue: 7th Floor, Alfred Centre, Burnet Institute, Melbourne
Cost: Free – including all catering

The Burnet Institute is proud to introduce Australia’s exciting new Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use. The Centre’s vision is to improve the health of people who inject drugs through the generation of new evidence and the development of tools for translating research into policy and practice. The Centre is funded by the NHMRC and is a collaboration between the Burnet Institute, the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, the Kirby Institute, Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, the National Drug Research Institute, the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland, the ACT Corrections Health Program, Anex, Harm Reduction Victoria and Hepatitis C Victoria.

We are very pleased to announce the Centre’s inaugural annual Colloquium to be held on July 18th, 2011. With an interactive format and exciting mix of Australian and international speakers the Colloquium is designed to draw together researchers, affected communities, policy makers and practitioners to discuss research findings and their implications for policy and practice.

We are delighted to announce internationally-renowned Professor Thomas Kerr from the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS as our Keynote Speaker for the Colloquium.
Professor Kerr will present on: ‘Harm Reduction in Vancouver, Canada: Responding to a Public Health Emergency’.

The Colloquium program will be grouped into four key themes:
Sessions will be highly interactive, with expert presentations and substantial opportunities for audience participation.
 Emerging issues and new developments in hepatitis
 Linkages between injecting drug use and mental health
 Overdose and state of the art overdose responses
 Managing the injecting environment, including the contentious issues of supervised injecting facilities and vending machines.

As numbers are capped RSVP’s are essential
Please contact Liz Nicol by Friday 8 July:
E: liznicol@burnet.edu.au or T: 03 8506-2304

For further information about the CRE contact Dr Rebecca Jenkinson – E: rebeccaj@burnet.edu.au or T: 03 8506-2311