2024 NDARC Annual Research Symposium

Registrations now open!

Date

Friday, 20 September 2024

Host

The University of New South Wales

Location

Wesley Conference Centre, 220 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Overview

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre cordially invites you to attend the 2024 NDARC Annual Research Symposium. For over two decades, our Symposium has been fostering research, collaboration, and innovation in the alcohol and other drugs (AoD) sector, and the upcoming event is set to continue this significant legacy.

This free, one-day event promises in-person learning, idea exchange, and peer network development facilitated by internationally renowned researchers and community leaders. Our carefully curated sessions cover various topics relevant to the AoD sector.

We invite you to register now and secure your place at the forefront of groundbreaking research in this field. For more information on our dynamic program and how to register, please refer to the details below. We look forward to welcoming you to Sydney for this event.

Registration

Media enquiries

If interested in interviewing any of our speakers, please contact NDARC Media.

Email: ndarc.media@unsw.edu.au | Phone: 0401713850

Program

Symposium Program
Sessions Highlights

Time	Activity
8:30 - 9.00 AM	Registration
9:00 - 9.10 AM	Welcome to Country
9.10 – 9.15 AM	Director’s Welcome Professor Michael Farrell Director, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), UNSW
Plenary One	*Opioids* Session Chair: Carolyn Paterson
9.15 – 9.45 AM	Keynote Address: Examining Trends in Drug-Related Deaths – the crucial importance of cohorts in informing our understanding of changing risks and harms. Professor Matthew Hickman Professor in Public Health and Epidemiology, Bristol Medical School
09.45 – 10.00 AM	Global coverage of interventions to prevent and manage injecting drug use related harms in prisons: a systematic review. Dr Thomas Santo Jr Post-Doctoral Fellow, NDARC, UNSW
10.00 – 10.15 AM	Development of opioid use disorder following treatment with opioid analgesics for non-cancer pain relief: an Australian state-wide nested case-control study. Dr Chrianna Bharat Post-Doctoral Fellow, NDARC, UNSW
10.15 – 10.20 AM	Q and A
10.20 – 10.25 AM	Introduction to the first round of Spotlight Poster Presentations
10.25 – 10.40 AM	· Ms Joanna Zhou: Retention in opioid agonist treatment following childbirth and associated factors. · Ms Kendal Chidwick: Trends in prescription opioid analgesic utilisation in Australia from 2015 to 2022. · Dr Ria Hopkins: Age-related risk of serious fall events associated with opioid analgesic use. · Ms Olivia Price: Population ageing and the apparent decline in the initiation of injecting drug use in Australia.
10.40 – 11.00 AM	Morning Tea
11.00 – 11.03 AM	Introduction to the second round of Spotlight Poster Presentations Session Chair: Professor Mel Miller
11.03 – 11.14 AM	· Dr Tayla Degan: Co-occurring DSM-IV mental disorders among people with methamphetamine dependence. · Ms Emily Symes: Presentations and characteristics of trans and gender-diverse patients presenting to an Australian Emergency Department. · Dr Ria Hopkins: Age, period, and cohort trends of substance poisoning, alcohol-related disease, and suicide deaths in Australia, 1980-2019.
Plenary Two	*New, Novel and Trending* Session Chair: Nadine Ezard
11.15 – 11.45 AM	The Changing Face of Overdose. Professor Shane Darke Professor, NDARC, UNSW
11.45 – 12.00 PM	Emerging drugs of concern - Prompt Response Network update. Dr Brendan Clifford Senior Research Fellow, NCCRED
12.00 – 12.15 PM	Emerging drug use, harms, and markets trends: Findings from Drug Trends 2024. Dr Rachel Sutherland Senior Research Fellow, NDARC, UNSW
12.15 – 12.30	Panel Discussion Professor Shane Darke, Dr Brendan Clifford, Associate Professor Rachel Sutherland
12.30 – 1.30 PM	Lunch
1.30 – 2.30 PM	Breakout Sessions
Breakout One: Treatment & Trials Session Chair: Apo Demirkol		Breakout Two: Community Engagement & Responses Session Chair: Lisa Russell	Breakout Three: Strong Foundations: Pregnancy & Families Session Chair: Hester Wilson
New behavioural and pharmacological trials for smoking cessation. Associate Professor Ryan Courtney Professor Hayden McRobbie LAIB in Prison: A report on qualitative data from patients who commenced treatment during a clinical trial. Dr Amelia Woods The impact of the NSW MERIT diversion program reoffending, imprisonment, and health. Professor Donald Weatherburn We need to talk about contingency management. Associate Professor Rebecca McKetin		Perceptions of religious and community leaders towards alcohol and other drugs and treatment in CALD communities in NSW. Dr Winifred Asare-Doku Expanding access to addiction medicine specialist care in regional NSW through telehealth. Ms Clare Smylie Defining approaches and research evidence around Community Action to reduce AOD harms. Dr Peter Gates Partnering to improve health outcomes in rural communities: Establishment of a clinical service research node in northern NSW. Dr Catherine Foley	Influences of methamphetamine use on family relationships: Interviews with family members. Ms Paige Webb Effectiveness of prescription smoking cessation pharmacotherapies during pregnancy: a multi-national study. Dr Annelies Robijn Trends in the use of opioid agonist treatment for opioid dependence in pregnancy. Dr Duong Tran Use of opioid agonist therapy in pregnancy: Timing of initiation and treatment retention. Ms. Bianca Varney

2.30 – 2.50 PM	Afternoon Tea
Plenary Three	*Alcohol* Session Chair: Matthew Craig
2.50 – 3.20 PM	Keynote Address: WHO's Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022–2030. What are the critical issues for Prevention and Policy. Professor Jürgen Rehm Senior Scientist, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research; Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
3.20 – 3.35 PM	Recent trends in alcohol use and harms in Australia. Dr Wing See Yuen Research Fellow, NDARC, UNSW
3.35 – 3.50 PM	Alcohol Retailers Lobbying activities: A Comparative Analysis of profit and Non-profit alcohol retail industry body policy submissions. Dr Michala Kawolski Post-Doctoral Fellow, NDARC, UNSW
3.50 – 4.05 PM	Zero-alcohol beverages in Australia – a snapshot of the market and pricing. Associate Professor Amy Peacock Deputy Director, NDARC, UNSW
4.05 – 4.10 PM	Director’s Close Professor Michael Farrell Director, NDARC, UNSW
4.10 – 4.30 PM	Entertainment followed by tea & coffee. Choir of Hard Knocks

Sessions Highlights

The release of National Drug Trends Reports
New, Novel, & Trending:
The changing face of overdose
Nitazenes & other emerging synthetics
Epidemiology and future trajectory in the Asia Pacific
Recent trends in alcohol use and harms in Australia
Zero-alcohol beverages in Australia
Global interventions, diversion program reoffending, imprisonment, and health
Improving rural health outcomes
Influences of substance use on family relationships.
Opioid agonist therapy during pregnancy
Development of opioid use disorder after using opioid painkillers
Age-related risk of serious fall events associated with opioid analgesic use.
Virtual Component:
Live streaming of keynote sessions for remote attendees.

Keynote Speakers
NDARC Experts

Professor Jürgen Rehm

Senior Scientist, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research; Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Professor Jürgen Rehm is a Senior Scientist at CAMH and a Professor at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on strategies to reduce harm from alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs and the impact of socioeconomic status and poverty on substance use. He has received several awards for his work, including the Jellinek Memorial Award (2003) and the European Addiction Research Award (2017).

Professor Matthew Hickman

Professor in Public Health and Epidemiology, Bristol Medical School.

Professor Matthew Hickman is the co-director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluations and a member and co-investigator of the NIHR School of Public Health Research and DeCIPHER (UKCRC Public Health Centre of Excellence for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement). His research programme focuses on infectious disease control and the epidemiology and public health consequences of drug use – with active research grants on the prevention of the Hepatitis C Virus, drug-related mortality, and alcohol-related harms.

Professor Shane Darke

Professor, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW.

Professor Shane Darke has worked in the field of illicit drug research at NDARC since 1988, and is a leading world expert on the morbidity and mortality associated with illicit drug use. He written many seminal works, particularly on opioid overdose, and has published widely in the area of illicit drug use, including work on opioid overdose, psychostimulant overdose, psychopathology, suicide, trauma, treatment outcome and toxicology. As of December 2021 he had published 300 research articles, 6 books, 85 Monographs and 8 book chapters. His most recent books are The Clinician’s Guide to Illicit Drugs and Health (Silverback Publishing, 2019) and The Pocket Guide Drugs and Health (Silverback Publishing, 2021), comprehensive works that examines the health effects of each of the major drugs. He is also the Regional Editor of Addiction (the leading international journal in the field) for Australasia & Southeast Asia, and an Associate Editor of both Drug & Alcohol Dependence and Drug & Alcohol Dependence Reports.

Dr Rachel Sutherland

Senior Research Fellow, NDARC, UNSW.

Dr Rachel Sutherland (BSocSc (Crim) Hons, PhD) is a Research Fellow at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales and currently holds a National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Fellowship (2021-2025). Her program of research is focused on monitoring systems for detecting trends in illicit drug use, including new psychoactive substances, and developing and evaluating novel responses to emerging drugs of concern.

Rachel is currently Deputy Program Lead for Drug Trends, and Program lead of the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) and Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS).

Dr Brendan Clifford

Senior Research Fellow, NDARC, UNSW.

Dr Brendan Clifford is a Senior Research Fellow with the National Centre for Clinical Research in Emerging Drugs. Brendan is a clinician researcher who uses interdisciplinary methods to further health equity and enhance access to evidence-based healthcare. He has a broad clinical background having worked in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Australia, mainly in emergency department settings. In addition to undertaking clinical research in alcohol and other drugs, he has also held roles in inclusive health innovation, and lectured in public health and social science. He completed his PhD examining intersectoral policy for homelessness and health at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics.

Associate Professor Amy Peacock

Associate Professor, NDARC, UNSW.

Dr Amy Peacock (BA Hons, PhD) is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, and an Adjunct Researcher in the School of Medicine, University of Tasmania. She is a National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leadership Fellow. Her program of research is focused on:

Monitoring systems for detecting trends in illicit drug use and communicating risks to consumers and health professionals;
Use, consumer characteristics, and harms associated with new psychoactive substances;
Use of pharmaceutical opioids and strategies (e.g., abuse-deterrent formulations) used to reduce extra-medical use;
Parental supply of alcohol and the association with subsequent alcohol consumption and related harm among young people; and
Mortality and morbidity associated with alcohol use using data-linkage methods.

Amy is currently the Program Lead for Drug Trends, comprising the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS), Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS), National Illicit Drug Indicators Program (NIDIP) and the Drug and New Technologies (DNeT) projects. Amy also currently coordinates the Australian Parental Supply of Alcohol Longitudinal Study.

Location

Wesley Conference Centre, 220 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000

We are delighted to announce that this year's Symposium will take place at the Wesley Conference Centre. Wesley Mission is an organisation renowned for helping people dealing with addiction, mental health, homelessness, financial difficulties, and domestic challenges. As our mission at NDARC is to see a world free from alcohol and drug-related harm, we are proud to be hosted by such an incredible organisation while showcasing the latest research in the fields of Alcohol and other Drugs (AoD) and related areas.

Conveniently located in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, the Wesley Conference Centre is the perfect venue for our one-day, face-to-face event. Convenient transportation and accommodation options are nearby.