Webinar: Session 7: NHS APA 2021 Virtual Conference - Lessons from the Dublin CityWide Stigma Campaign by NHS APA

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About This Webinar

Welcome to Session 7 of the NHS APA 2021 Virtual Conference.

In this session, we will be joined by speakers from the Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign, a national network of community activists and community organisations that are involved in responding to Ireland's drugs crisis.

Gary Broderick and Paula Kearny from SAOL, an integrated programme of education, rehabilitation, advocacy and childcare based in the north inner city, Dublin will be presenting on how they developed a trauma informed anti-stigma training programme for drug services. Over the last 25 years SAOL has aimed to promote the needs of women who use substances and their children and highlight the many extra difficulties that face these women including the stigma attached to being a woman/mother who uses drugs. The team developed a service user informed training system and manual about addressing stigma across delivery of services.

This programme was also supported by Professor Catherine Comiskey, who supported the evaluation and co-design of the CityWide pilot anti-stigma training programme.

At the end of this presentation there will be the opportunity for live Q&A with the presenters.

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Presenters

Gary Broderick

Manager of the SAOL Project

Gary Broderick is manager of the SAOL Project, Ireland’s first ‘women only’ addiction service. He has managed the service since 2008. Before that he worked as manager of Ana Liffey Drugs Project (a street drugs agency) and also worked as an addiction counsellor with the Health Board and as a volunteer with Merchants’ Quay Project.

He lectures in addiction with UCD (Social Work masters), Maynooth University (Youth and Community and Social Policy) and DCU (School of Nursing).

Arising from his work with women who use substances, he has developed a keen interest in Trauma Informed Practice (TIP) and has implemented TIP in SAOL and has spoken as several conferences on this topic and the practical issues connected with implementing this essential philosophy.

He has published articles with Dr Hilda Loughran on his work with UCD Social Work students and the SAOL Project in “From service-user to social work examiner: not a bridge too far” (2017, Journal of Social Work Education) and in ‘The Routledge Handbook of Service User Involvement in Human Services Research and Education’ (Ed McLaughlin et al, 2021).

Paula Kearney

Community Worker

My name is Paula Kearney, I am a community worker with a passion for working with people who use drugs. I am particularly interested in the area of stigma and creating the conditions for people who use drugs to be engaged in decisions that affect their lives. I am a founder member of SURIA (Service Users Rights in Action) which carries out peer research based on a human rights approach with a focus on people’s experience with addiction services.

Catherine Comiskey

Prof Catherine Comiskey has over 20 years of research experience working with vulnerable populations including children, young people, and people who use substance. She is currently the EU wide Academic Director of CHARM-EU, an EU Commission initiative to develop an EU wide University to address the Sustainable Development Goals using a challenge-based approach. From 2017 to present, Prof Comiskey was elected by EU members as Vice Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, a committee with a legal remit from the EU, and was recently appointed the Chair of the Committee. From 2017 to present, Prof Comiskey was invited by Minister Byrne to be the sole academic expert on the National Drug Strategy Implementation Committee. From 2014 to 2017, she was invited by Minister Varadkar to serve on the Oversight Forum on Drugs and invited by Minister White to Chair the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol. In 2007 to 2010 she was appointed by Minister of Education and Science to serve on the board of The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, (IRCSET). Prof Comiskey served as Head of School (2014-2017), Director of Research (2008-2011 and 2011-2014), Inaugural Director and Founder of the Trinity Centre for Practice and Healthcare Innovation (TCPHI)(2014-2017), Inaugural and Founding Chair of the Children's Research Network of Ireland and Northern Ireland CRNINI (2010-2014) and Professor in Healthcare Statistics at the School of Nursing and Midwifery (2008-present). Prof Comiskey’s expertise includes child centred research, study design, data analysis; Clinical research, trials; Epidemiology; Health outcomes; Infectious diseases; Mathematical modelling; Population Studies; Substance Abuse; Surveys & Survey Research. Professor Comiskey is currently an expert consultant to the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board.

Anna Quigley

Anna is Co-ordinator of Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign, a network of community organisations involved in responding to the drugs problem in Ireland. Anna has over 30 years’ experience working in community development and drug-related issues and has worked with Citywide since 1997. Citywide organises and facilitates local, regional and national networks that provide a voice for the communities most affected by drugs and links those communities into the policymaking process. Anna participates as a community representative on the national government structures that oversee Ireland’s National Drugs Strategy (NDS). She is currently a member of the National Oversight Committee (NOC) for the National Drugs Strategy (NDS) chaired by the Minister with responsibility for the NDS. Anna is also Citywide’s representative on the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs.