Retention, early dropout and treatment completion among therapeutic community admissions

Source: Drug and Alcohol Review, January 2012

Authors: Shane Darke, Gabrielle Campbell and Garth Popple

Funding: NSW Department of Health (via Network of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies)

The Problem: Treatment in drug free residential therapeutic communities is associated with substantial reduction in substance use and associated harms.  The best results are seen among those who spend a longer time in treatment over a single treatment period. Early drop out from treatment is common and is associated with poorer outcomes.

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How and when health-care practitioners in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services deliver alcohol screening and brief intervention and why they don’t: a qualitative study

Source: Drug and Alcohol Review (January 2012), 31, 13-19

Authors: Anton Clifford, Anthony Shakeshaft, Catherine Deans

Funding: Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing

The Problem: Indigenous Australians experience a disproportionately high burden of alcohol related harm. Despite the potential of screening and brief intervention (SBI) to effectively reduce this harm, alcohol SBI is not routinely delivered in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs).
What we wanted to find out: What are the perceptions and practices of health care practitioners in ACCHSs in relation to alcohol SBI? What factors influence routine alcohol SBI delivery in this setting?
How did we investigate? We conducted semi-structured group interviews with 37 purposively selected healthcare staff from 5 ACCHSs

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Self-harm and attempted suicide among therapeutic community admissions

Source: Drug and Alcohol Review, 2011 (advance online publication)

Authors: Shane Darke. Gabrielle Campbell, Garth Popple

Funding: Network of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies (NADA). http://www.nada.org.au/

The problem:  Suicide and self-harm are significant clinical problems for drug treatment agencies. Indeed suicide is one of the major contributors of premature mortality among dependent drug users. Psychoactive substances, including alcohol and other drugs, are present in more than half the cases of completed suicide.

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Methadone treatment for prisoners and the impact on re-incarceration and mortality

Source: National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund: Monograph Series no.37

Authors: Sarah Larney, Barbara Toson, Lucy Burns and Kate Dolan

Funding: National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund. http://www.ndlerf.gov.au/

The Problem: Heroin use by prisoners is associated with high rates of reimprisonment, reoffending and death following release. Despite widespread support for Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) from international bodies such as the World Health Organisation treatment provision is patchy. Objections “on principle” to providing the treatment still exist among some groups and individuals.  In Australia MMT is available to prisoners in all jurisdictions, with limitations on access in some states. Following release continued treatment in the community can be hard to access, for a variety of reasons, including funding and lack of support for heroin dependent ex-prisoners.

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Child Protection and Mothers in Substance Abuse Study

Source: NDARC Technical Report 320. http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/resources

Authors: Stephanie Taplin and Richard Mattick

Funding: NSW Community Services and University of New South Wales

The Problem: Parental substance use is one of the major concerns for the child protection system when assessing the ability of parents to safely care for their children. Some studies have found that parental substance use is associated with high rates of child maltreatment while others have found that parental substance use does not necessarily lead to child neglect or abuse. There is very little Australian data on the subject.

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Prescription of opioid analgesics and related harms in Australia

Source: Medical Journal of Australia, 195(5), 2011

Authors: Amanda Roxburgh, Raimondo Bruno, Briony Larance, Lucy Burns

The problem: There has been growing concern among Australian medical professionals about the increase in prescribing of analgesic opioids in particular, oxycodone and morphine. While opioids have a legitimate role in the management of pain there are also concerns that they can be “diverted” – bought, sold and used for purposes other than which they were prescribed.

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