The National Substance Misuse conference is back and this year the focus is treatment, prisons, prevention and trends. Speakers have been mustered from across the sector, ready to offer current thinking and latest developments on policy, practice and prevention.
This year, the Birmingham conference will be giving more time to its speakers, will a selected few presenting in their specialist area. West Midlands PCC, David Jamieson will be discussing legalisation and the impact it has on the West Midlands. Majella Pearce, the HM Inspectorate of Prisons will be covering the latest issues around drug use from her position as Deputy Head of Healthcare Inspection, and making his second appearance at the conference, CEO of Collective Voice, Paul Hayes, will be exploring class and place in drug policy. Michael O’Toole, Chief Executive of Mentor, will then move the day towards good practice in prevention and education among young people, whilst Professor Harry Sumnall from the Public Health Institute will explain how we can reduce the harms from substance misuse among the homeless population. And of course no National Substance Misuse conference would be complete without an overview of the 2017 Drug Strategy, provided by Public Health England’s Alcohol, Drug Treatment and Recovery Lead, Pete Burkinshaw. The final speaker is MP for Edgbaston Birmingham, Preet Kaur, who will be presenting on the Inequalities of Service Delivery.
Attendees will also be given a choice of four workshops on the day, each covering a different specialist area in substance misuse. As a follow on from Nigel Brunsdon’s 2016 talk on ‘Safer Spaces’, Volteface’s very own Lizzie McCulloch will be exploring whether the time is now right for drug consumption rooms. Ricky Bradley from Addactions Young Persons’ Service will be making the case for early intervention among adolescents who self harm, and KFx Director, Kevin Flemen, will be covering the five substances to watch post Psychoactive Substances Act. The final workshop is delivered by Dr George Ryan, Public Health England’s Senior Clinical Advisor in the Criminal Justice Team, who will be explaining the use of psychoactive substances in prison.
Undoubtedly, this conference will be a unique opportunity to consider how we can best meet the current and future challenges in substance misuse.
Tickets can be purchased here.
More information on the conference here.