"Closing the Gap": Addressing substance misuse health issues for Aboriginal communities

Presenters: Professor Dennis Gray, Head of the National Drug Research Institute's Indigenous Australian Research Program, and Associate Professor Ted Wilkes, Chair of the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee

Northern Forum
Date: Tuesday 17 November 2009
Time: 11:00 - 15:00 (lunch provided)
Location: Launceston Tram Shed Function Centre, 4 Invermay Road, Inveresk

Southern Forum
Date: Wednesday 18 November
Time: 10:00 - 12:30 (morning tea provided)
Location: Baha’i Centre, 1 Tasman Hwy, Hobart

Details
Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Council Tasmania invites all interested people to forums in both Hobart and Launceston featuring two of Australia’s most eminent health professionals: Professor Dennis Gray, and Associate Professor Ted Wilkes.

Professor Dennis Gray is one of the National Drug Research Institute’s two Deputy Directors and heads the Institute’s Indigenous Australian Research Program. He has conducted numerous research projects and published widely in the area of Indigenous substance misuse. His research has had practical outcomes for Indigenous people at the local, state/territory, and National levels. In 2006, Dennis’ research team won the National Drug and Alcohol Award for Excellence in Research and a Curtin University Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence. You can look at Dennis’ current projects here, as well as his extensive list of publications.

Associate Professor Ted Wilkes is a Nyungar man from WA with a lifelong involvement in Aboriginal affairs, his early professional background being spent with the Western Australian Museum. Following that, he became Acting Inaugural Head of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University, followed by 16 years as the Director of the Derbarl Yerrigan Aboriginal Health Service in Perth. Ted is currently advising the Australian National Council on Drugs, and is the Chair of the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee, and he serves on a wide range of state, National and international committees, which are working towards improving health outcomes for Aboriginal people. This allows him to work collaboratively across organisations, governments and communities to translate beneficial research findings into sustainable health policy and practice.

This is an extraordinary opportunity to meet and speak with two eminent health professionals whose advice is sought by all levels of government. Both forums are free to attend.

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UDRH Seminar - Learning from SNAP: how "social norms" insights could help to re-focus alcohol tobacco and other drugs (ATOD) education

Date: Wed 25 November 2009
Time: 12:15 (for 12:30) - 13:30
Location: Telehealth studios statewide
Presenter: Dr Clarissa Hughes, Research Fellow and Academic Research Coordinator, University Department of Rural Health

Details
The Social Norms Analysis Project (SNAP) was the first Australian trial of the social norms approach to health promotion. SNAP (which was conducted in 2006-7), differed from many alcohol programs which focus on improving knowledge of risks and warning of the ‘problem’ of peer pressure to drink.

Since leading SNAP, Dr Clarissa Hughes has been continuing to work in the area of alcohol education and health/wellness promotion both locally and nationally. In this seminar, Clarissa will reflect on the ‘essential learning’s’ from SNAP, and suggest ways in which socio-ecological approaches such as social norms could prompt a ‘re-think’ of how professionals, organisations and communities go about health promotion for young people. The session will also provide an update on several post-SNAP research projects, work with international colleagues, and the new 4Real website and online survey portal that will be launched in early 2010. Clarissa will also present her ‘big picture’ vision of how to make this work accessible to Tasmanian communities.

Clarissa Hughes
Dr Clarissa Hughes is a Research Fellow and the Academic Research Coordinator at the University Department of Rural Health at the University of Tasmania. She was the Director of the Social Norms Analysis Project and was one of the lead researchers in the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) commissioned "Youth Binge Drinking Scoping Project", led by Professor Ann Roche (Director of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University). She is passionate about helping to making academic research useful and useable for addressing real-world issues.

Online registration