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Drug Related Deaths Conference 2021

Drug Related Deaths Conference 2021

DRD Conference 2021

The IMS Drug Related Deaths annual conference 2021 took place as a Microsoft Teams Webinar on Thursday 2nd December with over 200 participants joining online.

While part of the conference’s focus was on Cheshire and Merseyside data from 2020, with the system being rolled out to the 10 Greater Manchester local authorities it also looked at some of the broader issues facing the region.

We were joined at the conference by a number of speakers including activist and campaigner Peter Krykant talking about the work in Glasgow with his pioneering drug consumption van alongside his new role with the charity Cranstoun, and heard from Anyone’s Child, the campaign by Transform Drug Policy Foundation to “end the war on drugs, better protect our children, and get drugs under control.”

#DRDevent   

Speakers & presentations


Professor Harry Sumnall, Public Health Institute, Liverpool John Moores University

Harry gave an opening address on behalf of the Public Health Institute and the University's Faculty of Health.


Professor Matthew Ashton, Director of Public Health, Liverpool City Council

Matt provided some opening remarks for the conference on the importance of the agenda around Drug Related Deaths to Liverpool and the wider region.


Mark Whitfield, Intelligence and Surveillance Manager, Public Health Institute

Mark spoke about the IMS Drug Related Deaths review model and presented the 2020 data for Cheshire & Merseyside, and the wider region.

  Mark's Presentation
Peter Krykant, Project lead - Cranstoun, and Trustee - Release

Activist and campaigner Peter Krykant talked about the work in Glasgow with his pioneering drug consumption van alongside his new role with the charity Cranstoun.

Peter Krykant set up his Overdose Prevention Centre van in September 2020, now with a legacy of over 800 injections supervised, and no fatalities, Peter has passed on his lifesaving Overdose Prevention Service vehicle to Transform Drugs Policy Foundation.


If you tweet about this event please
include the tag #DRDevent


Ina Roll Spinnangr, and Dagfinn Hessen Paust, Safer Drug Policy Norway

Safer Drug Policies (Foreningen Tryggere Ruspolitikk) is one of the leading advocates for harm prevention and evidence-based drug policies in Norway and the Nordics. They promote drug policies that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.

The #Decriminalize campaign is an initiative by Safer Drug Policies and several other Norwegian organizations that support the ongoing decriminalization reform in Norway, where all drug users will be offered help and treatment rather than being criminally charged.


Professor Pat Hudson, Anyone’s Child

Anyone’s Child, is the campaign by Transform Drug Policy Foundation to “end the war on drugs, better protect our children, and get drugs under control. Pat from Anyone’s Child talked about her son’s drug related death and “the need to see drug dependence as a medical issue rather than a moral failing.”

  Pat's Presentation
Jonathan Bowden and Gemma Swan, South Tees Public Health

Gemma presented the local approaches from Middlesbrough to harm reduction through new initiatives funded by the government’s ADDER (Addiction, Diversion, Disruption, Enforcement, and Recovery) programme.

  Gemma's Presentation
Sid Willett, Drug Related Death Prevention Co-ordinator, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly

Sid spoke about Cornwall’s drug related deaths and their local response to the issue, and presented data from the 2020 Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Drug Related Deaths report.

  Sid's Presentation
Professor Vivian Hope, Public Health Institute, Liverpool John Moores University

Viv made some final remarks bringing the event to a close.

Event recorded video

Conference Video

This video with presentations from the event is 2:30 hours in length.
To watch an individual presentation or speaker please use the time points below, or open the video in YouTube and use the time point chapters listed in the description.

  •   0:00 Welcome and agenda
  •  04:22 Prof Harry Sumnall
  •  07:45 Prof Matt Ashton
  •  10:33 Video "The Mersey Model"
  •  18:07 Mark Whitfield
  •  44:52 Peter Krykant
  • 1:05:06 Ina Roll Spinnangr, and Dagfinn Hessen Paust
  • 1:26:32 Professor Pat Hudson
  • 1:46:09 Gemma Swan
  • 2:02:30 Sid Willett
  • 2:26:43 Professor Vivian Hope
  • 2:30:50 End credits

Featured Videos

Harm Reduction, The Mersey Model (2021)

Danny Kilbride interviews Professor John Ashton, a public health official who helped institute the Mersey Model of Harm Reduction in Liverpool in 1986, the first government-funded needle exchange program in the UK.

Commissioned by Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art 2021: ENDURING CARE visualaids.org/enduringcare

Danny Kilbride is a community filmmaker based in Liverpool UK. He is the founding Director at Thinking Film, a not-for-profit organization that exists to provide marginalized communities with a voice and tell stories that challenge the way people see the world.

https://vimeo.com/646112002



Safe Drug Policies #Decriminalize campaign

The #Decriminalize campaign is an initiative by Safer Drug Policies and several other Norwegian organizations that support the ongoing decriminalization reform in Norway, where all drug users will be offered help and treatment rather than being criminally charged.

The campaign tells eight stories of how criminalization harms drug users, all based on true events. https://saferdrugpolicies.com



Scotland's drug deaths crisis: saving lives with an 'illegal' injection van

Peter Krykant, who operates a van in Glasgow where people can safely take illegal drugs, is running for Holyrood as part of a campaign calling for the Scottish government to establish legal sites. A former heroin addict, he is pushing for drug reform in Scotland, which has a reported drug deaths rate 15 times higher than the European average. "People are dying out there,' says Krykant, who is able to treat addicts who overdose in his van. Could interventions such as his change Scotland's status as Europe's drug deaths capital?

Previous themes and discussion topics have included:

COVID-19

How has this changed the offer from services and what will we keep going forward?

Mental Health

What are the barriers to people who use drugs (PWUD) receiving quality mental health care?

Homelessness

How can we keep the homeless population safe from overdose?

Prescribing

What can we be done about increased deaths from controlled medications?

End of Life care / Bereavement

Are PWUD receiving a consistent level of care and what support is there for those left behind?

Legal status

What can be done at a local level to make a difference?

Prisons

How can we protect people who use drugs from overdose on their release from prison?

Naloxone

How can we ensure it is freely available to those who need it?

Twitter


Many of our speakers are active on Twitter, their handles are included in the agenda listing above.

If you want to tweet about this event please remember to include the tag #DRDevent

Previous Events

For more details and presentations from previous events are available here: