Mark Whitfield is the Intelligence and Surveillance Manager at the Public Health Institute. He leads the Public Health Intelligence Unit team which includes a Drug Related Deaths surveillance and review system covering areas including Cheshire, Merseyside, and Greater Manchester.

Mark has a background in the field of drugs and alcohol having worked for almost 15 years originally within the scope of a local Mental Health NHS Trust, involving face to face work with drug using clients before moving on to more information based roles.

Professor Catriona Matheson, Professor in Substance Use, University of Stirling and Independent Review Consultant in Substance Related Deaths, Aberdeen City Alcohol and Drug Partnership.

Catriona Matheson is a part time Professor in Substance Use at the University of Stirling, and independent Consultant Reviewer of Substance related Deaths in Aberdeen City. She Chaired the Drug Death Taskforce for Scotland (July 2019-December 2021).

Her research, spanning 30 years, is in the delivery of care to people who use drugs. She has over 80 peer reviewed publications and has contributed to and written several educational materials around managing drug use and drug harms.

Current interests include effective interventions for people who use street benzodiazepines, non-fatal overdose pathways and exploring digital solutions to prevent drug related harm.

Presentation title:

Reducing Drug Related Deaths: Are National Policy Approaches working for those at highest risk? Learning from the Scottish Drug Death Taskforce

Professor Fiona Measham was appointed Chair in Criminology at the University of Liverpool in 2019. Fiona has conducted research for over 35 years across a broad area of criminology and drug policy, exploring changing trends in drug use, supply and markets; the socio-cultural context to drugs; and most recently, the impact and effectiveness of drug checking.

Presentation summary:

Fiona will discuss the history and development of drug checking in the UK from 3 years of festival piloting through to a central government licensed, local government funded regular city service launching this year. Alongside an overview of the rollout and evaluation of The Loop Drug Checking Service, which Fiona founded in 2012, she will consider wider issues of evidence-based policy, advocacy, legality and precarity in the harm reduction movement and raise the question of how we make change in challenging political environments.

Dr Caroline Copeland is a Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology & Toxicology at King’s College London, and the Director of the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality (NPSUM) (formerly known as the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths - NPSAD).

Dr Copeland heads a research group at King’s whose projects have the broad collective aim of improving healthcare strategies for people who use drugs. Current projects derived from the NPSUM range from the development of a wearable skin sensor to protect against opioid overdose, to the identification of drug-drug interactions between licensed medicines and illicit substances to prevent adverse effects. She has published over 30 research articles and successfully supervised 3 PhD students and over 40 MSc, MPharm and BSc student research projects.

Dr Copeland also sits on the Home Office’s Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs Novel Psychoactive Substances (ACMD NPS) Sub-Committee, and the Welsh National Implementation Board for Drug Poisoning Prevention (NIBDPP). In these roles Dr Copeland examines how national and international drug policy influences drug-related death trends.

Jon has worked in drug and alcohol for the last 30 years, most of these in operational delivery with the NHS.

Jon now works with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) national drug and alcohol team to support meeting the aims of the Drug Strategy. Jon co-leads for Tier 4 (inpatient detox and residential rehab) nationally as well as supporting the national plan to reduce Drug Related Deaths. For many years Jon has been keen to highlight the impact of stigma for people who use drugs and alcohol and find ways to tackle it.

Separately and independently from his paid role with OHID, Jon has a keen interest in supporting research by convening collaboratives to make ideas a reality, and most recently developing an expert group to explore the delivery of naloxone by drone. Jon also convened and leads the International Technology Solutions for Opiate Overdose Network (ITSPOON).

Dr Anne Campbell is a Professor in Substance Use at Queen's University Belfast, a member of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), and Co-director of the Drugs And Alcohol Research Network (DARN), Queen’s University Belfast.

Over the last number of years her research has impacted on UK Government drug policy and practice reform. She is currently working on ‘wearables technology ’ to detect opioid overdose deaths, augmented reality to inform interventions in drug use and drug related deaths in Northern Ireland.

Rick has been called ‘a key figure in the emerging field of human rights and drug policy’. He is a Professor in Criminology at Swansea University, past Executive Director of Harm Reduction International and co-founder of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex.

His most recent book, ‘Towards Drug Policy Justice: Harm Reduction, Human Rights and Changing Drug Policy Contexts’ has just been published by Routledge.

Peter Furlong is the National Harm Reduction lead for Change Grow Live and has been working in Drug services since the late 1990s. Starting as a volunteer in Merseyside, then working across a range of frontline roles including outreach, needle and syringe exchange, drug worker, services manager and North West regional development lead.

He was instrumental in pioneering the development of take-home naloxone in Sefton in 2010, one of the first services in the country to pilot its first provision as a core intervention also leading the introduction of nasal naloxone (nyxoid) for CGL services in 2019 which was independently evaluated by the University of Manchester (2020).

Jon Findlay is the National Harm Reduction Lead at Humankind.

He has worked in and around services for people who use drugs for 24 years. Within Humankind, Jon is now responsible for overseeing the national charity’s harm reduction services. These include needle syringe provision, clinical alerts, naloxone, safe inhalation, chemsex, and image performance enhancing drugs hormone clinics.

'For me harm reduction is an unconditional act of kindness and love not based on any requirement of compliant behaviour. Its about making today better'

Harry is a Professor in Substance Use in Liverpool John Moores University's School of Psychology. He is also a member of the Public Health Institute. His undergraduate degree was in Pharmacology at the University of Manchester, and he completed his PhD, examining the Behavioural Pharmacology of MDMA, at the University of Liverpool. He joined LJMU in 2003 where he developed specialisms in public health.

Harry undertakes research on a wide range of drug related topics - from pre-clinical studies to policy analysis - but has particular expertise in young people’s drug use, and prevention interventions.

His current programme of research includes work to understand how stigma affects support for drug policy actions, and development of interventions to reduce stigma in the general public and service settings.

Liz McCoy is the Drug , Alcohol and Addictive Behaviours Lead for Pennine Care NHS Trust and is a member of the NHS Substance Misuse Provided Alliance which represents 13 NHS Trusts providing Substance Misuse nationally.

Liz is a qualified Psychiatric Social Worker specialising in Addictions and related issues. She has almost 30 years experience in a wide variety of roles including front line work as a substance misuse worker, working as a child protection Social Worker and as a Service Manager and Strategic Lead for Substance Use.

Liz sits as a member of Public Health England's National Intelligence Network on Harm Reduction and contributed to the recent national work on reducing Drug Related Deaths. Liz also works for the Care Quality Commission as a Specialist Inspector for Substance Misuse and has undertaken substance use and service inspections and reviews for the Welsh Assembly and Welsh Health Boards. Liz's professional interests include Harm Reduction, Dual Diagnosis & complex case management and Drug Related Deaths. Liz is currently studying for a Doctorate in Dual Diagnosis

Jackie has worked for Change, Grow, Live since 2010; and within substance misuse and harm reductions services for 23 years.

She is currently the Greater Manchester Head of Services and have oversight of two integrated all-age services (Manchester City and Tameside), and the Be Smoke Free tobacco addiction service for Manchester.

Her career started within Needle Exchange when she was 24 years old in Blackburn and Darwen and She has worked across Lancashire and Greater Manchester over the course of her career.

Jackie has experience of working with people with additional needs and complexities, such as street sex workers and homelessness; whilst working collaboratively with partners to develop and evolve services to meet the needs of the people Change, Grow, Live serves (such as probation and safeguarding colleagues).

Kirsten Horsburgh is Chief Executive Officer of the Scottish Drugs Forum.

Kirsten has worked at SDF for over a decade, having previously worked in drug treatment services as a mental health nurse. Kirsten has held various positions within SDF, most recently serving as Director of Operations, and has now been appointed as CEO.

Kirsten is a strong advocate for the changes necessary to improve Scotland’s response to problem drug use, with extensive experience of working with the full range of stakeholders in Government, Alcohol & Drug Partnerships, local and emergency services and people with lived and living experience of drug use.

Her work over the years has been focussed on supporting local and national services to implement drug death prevention strategies. This has included the coordination of Scotland’s National Naloxone Programme, her experience of which she has used to support other countries in their implementation of naloxone provision, including as a member of the guidelines development group for the World Health Organisation’s Community Management of Opioid Overdose and as training consultant for the WHO/UNODC ‘Stop Overdose Safely’ (SOS) project.

Rebecca Fish is a Senior Research Associate at Lancaster University, she researches experiences of health and social care, including institutions and their impact on understandings of gender and disability. Her PhD study was an ethnography of a women's secure learning disability service. She has studied experiences of self-harm, violence and physical restraint / seclusion from multiple perspectives. Some of her research has been featured in the NICE guidance for longer term management of self-harm. She is interested in creative and inclusive research methods, feminist and disability research.

Presentation abstract:

Blackpool Local Authority in the north of England experiences very high rates of drug misuse, drug crime and drug-related deaths. Methadone and sublingual (taken under the tongue) buprenorphine are commonly used and well-established forms of opiate agonist therapy (OAT) that are used to treat opioid dependence. Methadone and buprenorphine have a strong evidence base showing they help people reduce or stop illicit drug use with significant benefits to health including prevention of hepatitis C and HIV infection and reducing injecting risk behaviours. People on OAT who are retained in treatment have reduced mortality. These two drugs have to be taken daily by mouth and, when starting treatment, under the supervision of a pharmacist.

Buvidal (buprenorphine prolonged-release injection) is a new OAT that is available as a long-acting injection that is given once a week or once a month. There is very limited evidence on Buvidal use in community settings, but it may be of benefit for those who find it difficult to attend for daily supervised medication. This research evaluates outcomes of Buvidal from the perspectives of service-users and practitioners/stakeholders to add to the body of evidence on this medication and to decide whether it is a cost-effective treatment for people with heroin dependence locally. Rebecca's presentation will describe the findings from the mixed-method study, using qualitative interviews (22 participants) and self-reported longitudinal data. With this work we expect to generate evidence to help policy makers to decide on the roll out of this medication in other communities.

Sam is Group Lead Inclusion Recovery Basingstoke, and Research and Innovation Project Manager at Inclusion Recovery Hampshire.

He has worked on the frontline in drug and alcohol support services in Hampshire since 2012, across a number of sites and in a variety of roles including outreach, group facilitation, and delivery of training.

He's currently working as Research and Innovation Project Manager helping with the delivery of 2 separate projects (including the BIO Wristband) within Inclusion Recovery Hampshire (part of Midlands Partnership NHS university hospital trust).

Tim Lewington, is Research Associate, Research & Innovation Department, Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

His research background is in economic geography having earned a PhD, from Syracuse University in upstate New York. For the last 15 years I’ve had various roles in the R&I Department; conducting clinical trials and other studies and, since the pandemic, working mainly in service evaluation and research.

Elizabeth Booth is one of two Clinical Leads working for WithYou in Liverpool. Elizabeth has worked in the drug and alcohol sector for 12 years since qualifying as a mental health nurse, starting out as an alcohol detox and RAID nurse in Stockport and has since moved on to roles such as hospital alcohol specialist nurse and then non-medical prescriber for drug and alcohol treatment before taking her current role as Clinical Lead.

Elizabeth has a Masters Degree in advancing healthcare practice in which she used research and consultation to improve treatment pathways in a drug treatment service in Perth and Kinross, to incorporate harm reduction principles into prescribing practice. Elizabeth has also published research into the use of Haloperidol to treat Delirium tremens and has a passion for improving drug and alcohol treatment through the application of practice-based evidence.

Ariella Williams is the National Director of Nursing at We are With You and has been working in alcohol and drug services since 2007, with senior level clinical and operational experience across the sector.

Ariella is a registered nurse with 20 years previous experience in the NHS, across acute mental health, forensic and secure hospitals, and acquired brain injury services. She joined the alcohol and drug treatment sector after witnessing the impacts that substance use had on patients of those services, and with an ambition and passion to make a difference.

She is a member of the expert development group for the UK clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment.

Sally Morrison-Griffiths graduated MBChB from the University of Liverpool in 2004 and qualified as a General Practitioner in 2008. She began working as a GPwSI in Substance Use Disorder the same year and has since worked in a number of roles in Addictions treatment nationally and also abroad in Gibraltar.

She has been an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, teaching Addictions to third year medical students and she is also a trainer for the RCGP Certificate in the Management of Drug Misuse (Part One). She has worked in an inpatient detoxification unit in North Wales. She has an interest in respiratory health and has been involved in research and publications relating to COPD in heroin smokers.

She is currently working as Clinical Lead for the Drug & Alcohol Treatment service, CGL in Sefton, Merseyside and continues to work part-time in General Practice.

Dr Judith Yates worked as a GP in Birmingham for thirty years. Since retiring from clinical work in 2015 she continued to work with Birmingham Coroner’s Office to monitor drug related deaths, and to look for ways to prevent future deaths.

Judith is a member of Doctors for Drug Policy Reform (D4DPR) and supports the development of evidence-based drug policy, locally, nationally, and internationally.

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Lucy O’Hare is a Conference Director at Harm Reduction International (HRI).

Lucy joined the team in 2015, to run the Harm Reduction International Conference in Kuala Lumpur – an event that signalled the beginning of an exciting journey at HRI. As part of the core team that put together HR17 in Montréal and HR19 in Porto, Lucy has developed a passion for the pace and diversity of the role, and the people she meets at these powerful, energising events.

Lucy is also responsible for conceptualising Constellations: An Online Festival on Drugs and Harm Reduction. HRI’s first major online event, the festival has broadened the scope of the HRI’s events by engaging new audiences and highlighting emerging areas of interest in the field of harm reduction.

Lucy previously worked at HIT, a UK-based harm reduction information agency, where she ran national training programmes. Lucy remains connected to the annual HIT Hot Topics Conference, the UK’s leading harm reduction conference.

Lucy holds a BA in French from the University of Leeds. She has been an enthusiastic harm reduction supporter since childhood.

Maddie is Harm Reduction International’s Conference Director and is based in Liverpool. She is responsible for the organisation of Harm Reduction International’s flagship biennial conference, and working to ensure that it continues its strong history of being relevant and impactful in our field around the world.

Maddie has almost two decades of professional experience across harm reduction and event management. Prior to joining Harm Reduction International in 2016, she was full-time Deputy Director of HIT, a UK-based harm reduction information and training organisation. She remains a Director of HIT.

Maddie lived in Thailand from 2002 to 2008, where she worked at various NGOs focused on harm reduction and HIV. Her experience during this time fomented her belief in the importance of the meaningful involvement of people who use drugs at all levels in harm reduction responses and drug policy discussions.

Maddie holds a BA in Modern Foreign Languages (French & Spanish) from the University of Bristol.

Andreia Ramos Silva, is a PhD student researcher in Liverpool John Moores University's School of Psychology. She has substantial experience in research, such as conducting quantitative and qualitative research.

She is particularly interested in stress and illness links and biopsychosocial interventions for health. Currently researching the feasibility of a behaviour change intervention to improve pain management and medication weaning.