Monthly Archives: May 2008

Project Officer (NSW)

>компютриt;Project Officer
Network of Alcohol and Other Drugs Agencies (NADA)

Do you want to work for a growing organisation that thrives on innovative and creative thinking?
Do you want to use your skills across a diverse range of new and established projects?

If so, we have a full time position for 12 months with the Network of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies (NADA) based in Redfern, Sydney. This is an exciting opportunity to work with a dynamic organisation and participate in its growth and development.

What is NADA?
NADA is the peak organisation for the non-government alcohol and other drug sector throughout NSW. NADA has more than 100 member agencies who offer counseling, education, residential and early intervention and prevention services. NADA provides leadership, programs and services for its members as well as strategic advice and advocacy to government on behalf of our members. The organisation currently coordinates a number of projects across a range of issues including workforce development, quality improvement, family and carers, co-morbidity and Information technology.

The Role
The successful applicant will support the development and delivery of projects and assist NADA to achieve its strategic objectives. To be considered you need:

Essential Criteria
Project management skills including planning and evaluation
Understanding of the non government drug and alcohol sector
Demonstrated strong written and verbal communication skills
Strong computer literacy (in particular Excel, PowerPoint and Word)
Strong analytical skills
Commitment to EEO and OH&S principles

Desirable Criteria
Appropriate tertiary qualifications
Understanding of drug treatment service delivery issues
Experience in organisational development or workforce development
Demonstrated effective consultation processes with a variety of stakeholders
Experience developing and monitoring project budgets

Applications Close: 20th June 2008

For more information please contact:
Vanessa Long on Tel: 9698 8669 or email vanessa@nada.org.au “

Team Leader – Alcohol and Oher Drugs Counselling (Victoria)

“Team Leader – Alcohol and Oher Drugs Counselling

The Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) Counselling team is a newly created team within the Clinical Services Branch, Organisational Wellbeing Division of Victoria Police aimed at providing an internal counselling option for Victoria Police employees seeking AOD support and counselling. The 2 counsellors within this team will work closely and collaboratively with Work Health Research and Development Branch and the Clinical Services team to ensure a respectful, responsive and appropriate AOD counselling service to all employees of Victoria Police within the requirements of the relevant polices and procedures.

Position Accountabilities
Strategically manage, direct and lead the functions and resources of Alcohol and Other Drugs program, Clinical Services Branch, to ensure effective provision of services and the effective administration of alcohol and other drug contract services.

Provide high level consultancy services and authoritative advice, support and information to senior management on clinical, staff welfare, alcohol and other drug related issues.

Develop and support members of the Clinical Services Branch in a manner that maximises the potential of the team and enables quality alcohol and other drug services.

Contribute to the planning, development and delivery of training and education programs for employees of Victoria Police on alcohol and other drug related issues.

Establish and cultivate professional and pro-active collaborative partnerships and effective communication networks with Victoria Police personnel, relevant external organisations and stakeholders to ensure co-ordination, standardisation and best practice in service delivery.

Develop and maintain processes for the collection and reporting of data for the Alcohol and Other Drug Counselling Program, prepare relevant comprehensive briefings, correspondence and reports in respect to the alcohol and other drug counselling team’s activities and exercise delegations on behalf of the Chief Commissioner.

Initiate Research and analysis in relation to issues relevant to the Alcohol and Other Drugs Counselling Program and contribute to appropriate research initiatives within Victoria Police and the wider policing community in relation to alcohol and other drugs.

Ensure the maintenance and monitoring of data and records in accordance with organisational policy and legislative requirements.

This position is located at: 128 Jolimont Road, East Melbourne.
The preferred candidate will be required to undergo security checks which will include fingerprinting.
Applicants should view the full position description at www.careers.vic.gov.au or at www.police.vic.gov.au where you will also find more information about jobs, working for government and how to apply.

Applicants must address the full key selection criteria for this position, contained at the above websites.
Applicants are advised to upload a statement addressing suitability against the key selection criteria, along with their resume. If you need help applying contact Terri Carr on 9301 6966.

For further information about this position please contact Sally Coates on 9301 6900.”

News of substance – drugs in the worldwide news

1. Jamaica Gleaner – ‘Use churches for counselling’. “Churches in Jamaica and, in particular, the Adventist denomination, were called upon to use their facilities to counsel individuals who are in need of someone to relate to as the nation faces tougher economic and social problems. The call came last Sunday from Dr Wendel Abel, head of the department of psychiatry at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).”

2. Independent Online (South Africa) – Can rehabs cure sex addiction? “A recovering drug and sex addict in Cape Town says fancy rehabilitation centres, like the one British Lord Irwin Laidlaw has booked into, cost a fortune and are a waste of money. Laidlaw is at Montrose Place in Bishopscourt, one of the most exclusive facilities in the country, run by the wealthy Graaff family. Part of his treatment includes attending a sex and love addicts anonymous programme.”

3. Globe and Mail (Canada) – Military drug tests find one in 20 using. “More than one in 20 Canadian soldiers and sailors in non-combat roles tested positive for illicit drug use in random tests conducted on more than 3,000 military personnel from coast to coast. The results provided to The Canadian Press show that over a four-month period, 1,392 sailors in the navy’s Atlantic and Pacific fleets and 1,673 soldiers in the army’s four regions and training branch were subjected to blind drug testing.”

4. Merinews (India) – Teenage drug addiction. “MEET MRINAL from Kanpur. He is 16 years old and has already been to a rehabilitation centre. He started drinking and smoking since he was 13. Meet Manoj and Vijay from Delhi, aged 17. They are famous among their group for throwing big parties with unlimited flow of alcohol and marijuana.”

5. AOL Canada – Feds pony up $10M to battle addiction in Vancouver. “The federal government is putting up $10 million to fund new programs to battle drug addiction in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. However, none of the cash will go to Insite, the controversial supervised safe-injection site that has won praise from Premier Gordon Campbell but drawn fire from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has called it a “second-best strategy at best.”

6. ScienceAlert (Australia) – Receptor may control heroin addiction. “Researchers from the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne have identified a factor that may contribute towards the development of heroin addiction by manipulating the adenosine A2A receptor, which plays a major role in the brain’s ‘reward pathway’. Using mice specifically bred without the adenosine A2A receptor, Prof Andrew Lawrence and his team showed that these mice had a reduced desire to self-administer morphine; heroin is converted to morphine in the body. The mice also self-administered less morphine compared to control littermates, but did not develop tolerance to specific behavioural effects of morphine.”

7. news.com.au – Ice addicts clog our hospitals. “DOCTORS are warning the health system is not coping with violent ice users. In the publication Australian Medicine, released today, the Australian Medical Association says medical staff are increasingly at risk from psychotic and aggressive methamphetamine (ice) users. AMA national president Rosanna Capolingua said emergency departments were being strained by ice users who were often drunk as well.”

8. United Press International – Prescription drug abuse surging. “Healthcare workers and dishonest patients are filling U.S. streets with potentially addictive prescription medications, officials say. Also contributing to the problem are pharmacy thefts, robberies and burglaries, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.”

9. Thaiindian News – A new poppy variety to check drug abuse. “A poppy plant that is difficult to extract morphine from? That is what scientists at the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, have developed in order to combat abuse of drugs produced from poppy. The new poppy variety is the first of its kind in the world, claim scientists who have been working on it for the past seven years. “Unlike the original poppy plants, easy extraction of morphine is not possible from the new variety developed at our institute,” Ashutosh K. Shukla, a senior scientist at the institute, told IANS.”

10. TheHeart.org – Marijuana users have increased apoC3, triglycerides. “Heavy, chronic use of marijuana causes increased levels of apolipoprotein C3 (apoC3), which in turn results in a major increase in triglyceride levels, a small study shows [1]. The findings may explain some of the vascular effects of marijuana that have been observed, say Dr Subramaniam Jayanthi (National Institute on Drug Abuse, Baltimore, MD) and colleagues in their paper published online May 13, 2008 in Molecular Psychiatry. Senior author Dr Jean Luc Cadet (National Institute on Drug Abuse) told heartwire: “A lot of people in cardiology have probably not been following the literature on marijuana, as most of it comes from the perspective of the neurologist or neuropsychiatrist. But in researching this topic, we came across a lot of papers suggesting that marijuana has acute cardiovascular effects, and we ourselves published a paper in 2005 showing that heavy marijuana users had increased resistance to brachial flow.”

News of substance – drugs in the worldwide news

1. Courier Post Online (USA) Flying High: American Drug Policy. “Drug abuse has been on the rise in the United States since the late 1960s. Today, an estimated five million people in the country are living with a severe drug or alcohol addiction. When left untreated, drug and alcohol addiction costs the country approximately $276 billion in lost productivity, law enforcement, healthcare, justice, welfare, and other programs and services. Drug addiction can have a devastating impact on an individual and society because addicts have little concern for anything other than their next high. As a result, existing obligations in their life are often ignored. Addicts lose their employment, homes, families, health, and even their lives.”

2. TriCities.com – Prescription Drug Addiction Has Unlikely Victims. “Lia Johnson sat shackled in a vacant, windowless room in the bowels of the Abingdon regional jail one afternoon in March. The young mother was handcuffed and zipped into an orange jumpsuit. Between her and the cool, spring breeze outside were two armed guards, a long hallway and two sets of fortified doors.”

3. Medical News Today – Benefits In Chronic Pain Outweigh Risks For Painkiller Abuse. “As controversy swirls about proper clinical use of opioids and other potent pain medications, research reported at the American Pain Society annual meeting shows that, contrary to widespread beliefs, less than 3 percent of patients with no history of drug abuse who are prescribed opioids for chronic pain will show signs of possible drug abuse or dependence.”

4. WKYC.com – Study: Marijuana use in teens could worsen depression. “Teens looking to alleviate depression with marijuana and other drugs may be making their situation worse.
According to a study by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, marijuana use can not only make depression worse, but can also lead to more serious mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and anxiety.”

5. Red Orbit – When the Internet Becomes Too Much. “One of the year’s top tech trends is Internet addiction, according to J. Walter Thompson, the advertising agency powerhouse. What’s old is new again. “Internet addiction has been a concern since the dawn of the Web,” acknowledges Ann Mack, the agency’s “director of trend spotting.” It may not be a new trend, but it remains an important one. Mack points to online discussions, Internet gambling, online porn, and interactive role-playing games. But, just about everything about the Internet can snag you in one way or another.”

6. Science Centric – Homeless youth need more than treatment for substance abuse, study says. “A new study of homeless youth suggests that treating substance abuse and mental health problems may not be enough to help get teens off the streets. Instead, researchers found that creating more opportunities for work, education and medical care were the most important factors in reducing homelessness.”

Budget 2008 – binge drinking is it?

I’m a bit of a budget junkie – particularly when a new government is in power. So tonight I watched the whole shebang closely and was struck by one thing in particular: the prevention versus treatment status quo is certainly not under threat.

Just over 3 billion over five years for prevention versus the 10 billion health infrastructure fund (read: hospitals and MRI machines). That 10 billion is in addition to the current health budget which is totally dominated by non-prevention activities. The Rudd government is obsessed by binge drinking and alcopops but there’s not a lot else on offer. Or am I being too cynical?

The ANCD have released the breakdown of specific initiatives:

The 2008–09 Federal Budget revealed the following funding:

National Binge Drinking Strategy

$53.5 million over 4 years to reduce binge drinking and its associated harms around the nation – from existing funding.

‘Alcopops’ Legislative Change

An increase in the excise and excise‑equivalent customs duty rate applying to ‘other excisable beverages not exceeding 10 per cent by volume of alcohol’ from $39.36 per litre of alcohol content to the full strength spirits rate of $66.67 per litre of alcohol content on and from 27 April 2008.

Closing the Gap in Indigenous Health

$49.3 million over 4 years through COAG to improve access to drug and alcohol services – this doubles the previous 2006 COAG commitment – new funding

$14.5 million over 4 years in the Indigenous Tobacco Control Initiative to help tackle high rates of smoking in Indigenous communities – from existing funding

$9.8 million for 22 remote communities to receive support and assistance from a local Aboriginal family and community worker and/or a safe house and a mobile child-protection team based in Darwin will continue to support families in remote communities

$9.5 million for alcohol diversionary activities for young people between 12 and 18 years offering a range of safe and healthy alternatives to drinking and other substance abuse

Additional Funding for the National Tobacco Strategy

$15.0 million over 4 years to help reduce the health problems caused by smoking and to reduce smoking rates among young people – new funding

Illicit Drug Use National Education Strategy – targeting people using methamphetamines

A national education and marketing strategy to encourage ‘ice’ users to quit – from existing funding

Links Between Drug Use & Mental Illness Community Campaign

$9.7 million in savings expected

National Psychostimulants Initiative

$4.0 million in savings expected

RecLink Program

$2.3 million over 4 years to improve the lives and opportunities for Australians suffering from drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, social discrimination and homelessness – new funding.

Model Code of Conduct for National Sporting Organisations

$20.1 million over 4 years to implement a model framework and code of conduct for national sporting organisations to address the issue of illicit drug use by athletes – from existing funding.

National Advisory Council on Mental Health

To be established from existing funding

Mental Health Nurses Training Subsidy

$35.0 million over 4 years to increase the number and value of postgraduate mental health nurse and psychology scholarships – new funding.

Night  Patrols

A total of $17.7 million has been allocated for community night patrols over the 2008-2009 financial year. Night patrols to make remote Indigenous communities safer and more secure for families and children will continue as part of the Australian Government’s commitment to implementing the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER). The additional funding will enable the continued operation of night patrol services in the 73 communities covered by the NTER.

Australian Federal Police

The AFP will receive funding of $47.0 million to deploy additional sworn members to assist in capacity building and narcotic roles in Afghanistan.

The deployment of 66 additional Australian Federal Police as part of the NTER.

Australian Crime Commission

The Australian Crime Commission will receive a further $4.2 million to continue the work of the National Indigenous Violence and Child Abuse Intelligence Task Force

Customs

Australia’s port security and border protection capabilities will be strengthened by $16.0 million over the next four years to increase its container examination capacity at four key regional seaports. Funding will be provided to assist in the identification and interception of illegal and potentially dangerous goods.

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts – if you had a 21 billion surplus, what would you spend it on?

Career Medical Officer – Sydney

“The Kirketon Road Centre (KRC) is a primary health care facility located in Kings Cross, which is involved in the prevention, treatment and care of HIV/AIDs and other transmissible infections among ‘at risk’ young people, sex workers and injecting drug users. It also operates a low threshold methadone access program (MAP) which targets street-based opioid dependent injecting drug users (IDUs) who have had difficulty accessing or being retained in other methadone treatment programs. This position is responsible for the provision of day-to-day, quality medical care for KRC clients within the framework of primary health care as well assessment and treatment of marginalised IDUs.

Career Medical Officer :up to 36 hours/ Week Permanent P/T

Essentials:

Medical Practitioner fully registered in NSW At least two years relevant postgraduate clinical experience Commitment to harm minimisation philosophies

Desirables

Postgraduate training and or experience in primary care, alcohol and other drugs, sexual health, HIV medicine, women’s health, adolescent health

Contact: Dr Craig Rodgers 02 93602766,

Full Details on

http://www7.health.nsw.gov.au/healthjobs/Default.cfm?ID=1234&ID_HJJobs=5 “

News of substance – drugs in the worldwide news

1. Surrey Now (Canada) – No room for ideology at Insite. “The clock is ticking on the future of one of Canada’s most important and unique attempts to deal with drug addiction, and perhaps that’s a good thing. It may very well be good that the federal government is sending signals it will soon no longer support Vancouver’s supervised injection facility (Insite). Getting Ottawa out of the picture may actually create some certainty and stability for the controversial facility in Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside.”

2. icWales (UK) – Jamie’s Addiction Story. “AT the height of his addiction to heroin, Jamie was spending over £400 a week to get the drug that his body craved. He was just 15, still at school, and shoplifting daily to finance both his habit, and that of his girlfriend Sarah (name changed to protect her identity). “I was doing about half a gram a day,” says Jamie, now 17.
“That was costing me £30 and then Sarah was using the same amount. Your whole life is about getting money to get your next bag.”

3. The Hindu (India) – UN joins OPEC partner to curb HIV among drug users. “The United Nations anti-narcotics agency has joined forces with the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) in a bid to rein in the spread of HIV among drug users.”

4. Etalaat (India) – Conflict blamed for drug addiction among women in JK. “The armed conflict in Kashmir has eaten into the very vitals of the society and it is one of the main reasons for drug addiction among women, according to a study. “With search operations, crackdowns, firing incidents and grenade blasts being a regular feature, the women folk were all the time worried about the safety and security of their dear ones. Taking to drugs in the form of cough syrups and other sedatives was the only option left for them to come out of the mental tension,” Dr Ghulam Nabi Wani, founder HNSS De-addiction Centre, Khanyar, who carried out the study told Etalaat on Wednesday.”

5. Wall Street Journal – New Version Of OxyContin Raises Concern. “A Food and Drug Administration panel expressed deep concerns about a purported abuse-resistant form of the painkiller OxyContin, saying there is a “striking” lack of data about the drug’s abuse-prevention qualities. “I’m fascinated with the poor scientific rigor” of the data presented by Purdue Pharma LP, maker of OxyContin, FDA panel member Jeffrey R. Kirsch said. “It’s almost insulting.”

6. Islamic Republic News (Iran) – Number of drug-related deaths up in Germany in 2007: report. “The number of drug-related deaths rose by 98 people or 7.6 percent to reach 1,394 last year, according to the annual report released Monday by the government’s anti-drug commissioner Sabine Baetzing.”

7. The Age – Barnes’ binge: cheap wine and 10 grams of cokemebeli. “JIMMY Barnes can’t believe he lived through a death-defying drug-and-booze binge, which, by rights, should have killed him. The rock icon has revealed the extent of his drug use, in which he consumed a daily cocktail of cocaine, ecstasy and vodka for four years.”

8. The New York Times – Reports Find Racial Gap in Drug Arrests. “More than two decades after President Ronald Reagan escalated the war on drugs, arrests for drug sales or, more often, drug possession are still rising. And despite public debate and limited efforts to reduce them, large disparities persist in the rate at which blacks and whites are arrested and imprisoned for drug offenses, even though the two races use illegal drugs at roughly equal rates.”

9. The Ottawa Citizen – An addict’s White knight. “Ottawa police chief Vern White demonstrated leadership this month by travelling to Toronto and personally making the case for proper drug treatment facilities in Ottawa. In the policing world, there are probably still a few old-timers who think substance abuse is mainly a law enforcement issue and that the principal problem facing drug addicts is a flawed moral character. Chief White, it appears, is not one of them. His efforts to bring residential drug treatment services to Ottawa suggests he understands that addicts might need help more than handcuffs.”

Social Worker – St George Hospital (NSW)

“South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service

Applications are invited for the position of Social Worker (level 2) attached to a dynamic Hepatology dept at St George Hospital, Kogarah.

The Social worker is responsible for providing assessment, management and evaluation of developed strategies to people who present in crisis, live with complex psycho-social issues within a chronic disease model of care. The social worker will work both autonomously and within a multi disciplinary team. 

Position Title 
Social Worker Level 2 

Employment Type 
Temporary Part-time 

Location
St. George Hospital 

Essentials
1. Post graduate social worker experience
2. Demonstrated interpersonal skills
3. Demonstrated communication skills
4. Demonstrated ability to work within a multi disciplinary team and autonomously
5. Computer literacy demonstrated by experience with Microsoft Word, Excel and electronic mailing
6. Experience working with people who have complex psycho-social needs
7. Experience working with people in crisis
8. Experience working with people living with a chronic illness
9. Demonstrated capacity to act as patient advocate
10. Demonstrated experience with government agencies such as CentreLink 

Desirables
1. Experience working with people living with hepatitis C virus
2. Experience working in Alcohol and other Drug setting
3. Experience establishing support groups 

Duration
Position is 24 hours per week for 12 months duration, with view to extend. 

Contact Name For Position Enquiries
Suzanne Polis on (02) 9113 2407 or Suzanne.Polis@sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au”

News of substance – drugs in the worldwide news

1. KGMB9.com (USA) – Drug Addiction: A Click Away? “Morphine, vicodin, oxycontin… It used to be the only way to buy these powerful drugs was at a pharmacy, with a valid prescription from a doctor.
Today more people are ordering narcotics on the Internet. Many online pharmaceutical sites are legal, meaning they require a signed prescription from a physician and proof of a legitimate medical problem.”

2. Ireland Online – Downey blames movie for addiction. “Former troubled actor Robert Downey Jr blames his role in 1980s cult film ‘Less Than Zero’ for fuelling his drug addiction.
The 43-year-old insists he only took drugs recreationally before he was cast as a cocaine addict in the 1987 film based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis.”

3. MovieWeb – Paramount to Develop Two Drug Memoirs as One. “Paramount is venturing into the world of drug addiction in a very unique way. According to Variety, the studio has acquired the memoirs Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction by David Sheff and Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, by his son, Nick Sheff. Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company will also develop the project.”

4. The New Nation (Bangladesh) – ‘Drug addiction a silent killer’. “The two World Wars did not claim so many lives, as did drug addiction, the Adviser for Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and Culture, Women and Children Affairs Rasheda K Chowdhury said. She was speaking as Chief Guest a discussion meeting on “Misuse of Drugs and Addiction to It” at Viqarunnessa Noon School and College auditorium yesterday in the city.”

5. Today’s Zaman (Turkey) – Drug addiction in spotlight, threat more serious than imagined. “Though drug addiction is considered a relatively minor problem in Turkey, figures indicate that heroin and cocaine addictions are on the rise, with experts cautioning the dangerous trend may continue. “Studies and statistical data indicate Turkey is one of many countries that have suffered from problems related to drugs and drug addiction. Indeed, this problem is greater and more serious than one might imagine,” said Green Crescent Fight against Alcohol and Cigarette Abuse Chairman Mustafa Necati Özfatura.”

6. Globe and Mail (Canada) – Picking at the scab of meth addiction. “As Cranked opens, Stan, a young hip-hop MC, is comparing the slow, lumbering zombies of old movies to the speedier ones of today’s horror flicks. To him, the modern running undead seem more realistic: “When you crave flesh … When it is the sole thing in the universe that you can focus on and you want it as bad as your next breath of air? Oh yeah, you will run.”

7. The Independent (UK) – Sex addiction: The facts from the fruity fiction. “Ah, sex. Our compulsion to reproduce, or to go through the motions of doing so, has a habit of getting people into trouble, especially if they are wealthy or powerful. The readiness with which men – it is usually men – with money or influence will turn aside from their business affairs to engage in extra-curricular dalliances is all too familiar. What we didn’t know, until recently, is that it may qualify as a medical disorder.”

8. The Canadian Press – Health crisis brewing in Vancouver before safe injection site opened: lawyer. ” A lawyer for a group that wants the federal government to keep a safe-injection site open in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside says a public health crisis was brewing in the area for more than a decade before the facility opened. Monique Pongracic-Speier told B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday that injection drug use had become an epidemic in Canada’s poorest postal code and the site now provides an important health service.”