Mrs Christine Goodair
Programmes Manager ( Substance Misuse) Population Health Research Institute, St George’s, University of London
Since 2007 I have been at St. George’s working on a range of substance misuse projects. My current programmes of work are Substance Misuse in the Undergraduate Medical Curriculum, EU- Madness, a project monitoring the health harms of novel psychoactive substances, the National Programme on Drug Related Deaths and helping with the St George’s heritage/archives programme.
Previously, I worked for over 20 years in special libraries and information services. My last information role was at DrugScope as manager of their information services and website, including working on two European projects on addictions.
The principal aim of the national programme on Substance Abuse Deaths (np-SAD) is to reduce and prevent drug-related deaths in the UK due to the misuse of drugs, both licit and illicit, by collecting; analysing; and disseminating information on the extent and nature of drug-related deaths. The programme also monitors deaths associated with abuse of volatile substances (VSA).
The poster describes the work of the np-SAD and VSA projects in terms of their surveillance and monitoring roles and contribution of information to policy-making. An overview of the databases is given, along with a description of the specialist reports and analyses that can be provided for relevant organisations. Health risks and mortality arising from use of new emerging substances is discussed. Functions of the programmes such as being an early warning system for new trends in mortality and drug misuse and the use of data as an indicator to estimate the prevalence of substance-related problems and assess the hazards associated with substance abuse are considered.
Co-Authors
Hugh Claridge; John Corkery; Fabrizio Schifano
