On Tuesday 13 February, the VHA hosted a webinar and panel discussion exploring the role of community health in improving service responses for people who consume drugs and alcohol. Chaired by Dr Belinda Bravo, VHA’s General Manager of Policy and Advocacy, our panel included: 

• Dr Natham Stam, Principal Research Fellow, North Richmond Community Health. Dr Stam shared his reflections on the work of the medically supervised injecting room to support consumers who inject drugs. 

• Danny Jeffcote, Outreach Cluster Leader, cohealth, with a presentation on establishing a health-led response to public intoxication, and 

• Dean Membrey and Paul MacCartney, who are both General Practitioners and Addiction Medicine Specialists at cohealth. Dr Membrey and Dr MacCartney talked about their work to strengthening the pharmacotherapy offering in Victoria. 

The event was delivered as part of Tri-peaks. Tri-Peaks is a collaborative initiative between the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (Centre), the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association (VAADA), and the Victorian Healthcare Association (VHA) over 2023 and 2024. The project aims to expand and extend the supporting cross-sector collaboration, promoting good governance and integrating practices in the child and family, alcohol and other drug and community health sectors. 

The VHA would like to thank our expert panel members and event attendees for their participation on the day.  

The full list of past Tri-Peaks webinars can be found here. You can watch the latest webinar 'Opportunities for community health-led responses to drug and alcohol consumption' here.