Speaker bios and talk outlines for some of our NNEF 2019 conference speakers. Please note that we do not have bios and outlines for all speakers and we will add them as we get them.

Daniel Ahmed

Danny Ahmed is a registered mental health nurse, integrative psychotherapist and clinical partner at foundations. Danny has 20 years experience supporting people who use drugs adopting a health focused harm reduction approach.

Heroin Assisted Treatment - Danny's presentation will outline the Middlesbrough story of developing heroin assisted treatment. Briefly explaining the local backdrop, current evidence and then sharing information on the HAT programme in Middlesbrough was brought to fruition and early learning.

Claire Smiles

Claire has just completed an MSc at Newcastle University, researching interventions for chemsex. With a passion for education and harm minimisation, she has merged her skills and experience as a frontline drug practitioner to devise strategic training packages, for professionals on drugs and alcohol. Claire has delivered workshops and presentations at regional Public Health England conferences and worked as ‘Content Manager’ for the world’s largest survey of users of psychotropic substances, the Global Drug Survey (GDS). Claire will begin a Fuse PhD studentship at Newcastle University researching ‘Vulnerable Families’ in January 2020.

Interventions for chemsex: researching harm reduction strategies in needle exchange services in the UK - Presenting findings from a 2019 study of practitioner’s perspectives on harm reduction for men who have sex with men and use drugs that relate to chemsex. The study explored interventions, advice and attitudes to chemsex in needle exchange services in the North East and London. As the phenomenon of chemsex continues to unfold and the harms associated with intense sexualised drug use is an increasing concern for public health, this study offers a snapshot of third sector provision and the harm reduction response.

Dr Magdalena Harris

Dr Magdalena Harris, Associate Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, is a qualitative researcher with a background in sociology. She conducts a programme of research with people who inject drugs oriented toward evidencing and reducing health harms related to social exclusion and drug use. She is an ex-injector and is passionate about using her research to make a tangible difference, however small, to harm reduction policy and practice.

Unsafe use of water and acids in injection preparation: Implications for health harms and harm reduction response - Magdalena will draw on survey and qualitative data from the NIHR funded project ‘Care & Prevent’ to illustrate findings related to unsafe use of acids and water for injection preparation among people who inject heroin and crack cocaine in London. This presentation will focus on data pertaining to overuse of acidifier for injection and use of alternatives to sterile water (such as puddle water, alcohol and saliva) in injection preparation practice. Potential health harms arising from these practices will be outlined and future steps for harm reduction policy and practice discussed.

Sunny Dhadley

Sunny Dhadley FRSA is a speaker, consultant, reform ambassador, chair of Naloxone Action Group (NAG) and social leader with lived experience of problematic drug use. Sunny is currently working with Transform Drug Policy Foundation on the Anyone's Child campaign as Activist Coordinator for the Midlands Region.

Anyone’s Child - Anyone's Child Families for Safer Drug Control is a network of families from all over the world whose lives have been destroyed by drug policy and are now campaigning for the legal control and regulation of drugs. Sunny will discuss the campaign and how others can get involved and join the growing activist network.

Sue McCutcheon

Sue McCutcheon is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner with the Birmingham Homeless Primary Care Team, a GP practice for homeless individuals, and has worked within this service for over 17 years. Sue’s specific role is as a Street Nurse and her aim is to deliver on-street primary health care to rough sleepers and other individuals within the Birmingham street community, thereby increasing their access to healthcare. In this role she works directly on the street each day, addressing the often complex health concerns of rough sleepers, many of whom experience problematic substance use. Over recent years Sue’s focus has been drawn to responding to a significant increase in serious infections amongst the street injecting population in Birmingham. Sue began her career working as a nurse in an Accident and Emergency department in a busy city centre hospital and later worked in different roles within the substance use field. Sue has a passion and commitment to harm reduction approaches amongst homeless substance users. She is a member of the Birmingham Drug & Alcohol Related Death Inquiry Group and the Naloxone Action Group for England.

BSMHT: homeless needs - Over recent years Birmingham has seen an increase in serious infections amongst the homeless community - many of the individuals affected are using substances. Specifically, many of the infections are amongst individuals who inject drugs. A significant number of those affected typically have limited engagement with services. Through providing health care directly on the street to homeless individuals it has become evident that many of these individuals have a very high level of health care need. Building effective relationships with the individuals encountered is fundamental to the success of this approach. On-street interventions are one way of trying to engage with and attend to some of the needs of this group of individuals, but broader approaches and strategies are required in order to reduce some of the risks and harms to these individuals.

Dr Steve Taylor

Dr Steve Taylor FRCP PHD is a Sexual Health and HIV consultant for the Birmingham Heartlands HIV service. He was service lead for 16 years during which time he established a nationally recognised multidisciplinary centre of excellence for HIV care. He is now the Clinical lead for HIV research at the Unit and has published over 100 peer reviewed HIV related articles He is the Medical Director of the National HIV and Sexual Health Charity SavingLives and a passionate Health promotion advocate.

Saving Lives: DBST service, HIV outbreak - Steve will be talking about the rise in HIV amongst PWIDs in Birmingham, as well as the Saving Lives DBST service and the cooperation with The Hepatitis C Trust.

Rachel Halford

Rachel has over 20 years’ experience of working with people at high-risk of viral hepatitis, and liver disease generally – the homeless, prisoners, substance users and migrants. She is Chief Executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, having previously been Deputy Chief Executive. Before this Rachel was Chief Executive of Women in Prison Ltd; a national a national UK campaigning organisation that provided support and advocacy for women affected by the criminal justice system.

The Hepatitis C Trust is a UK National patient led and run organisation that provides information, support and advocacy services for people affected by hepatitis C. Currently a staff team of 36 people many of whom deliver Peer Support services in community services including homeless, pharmacies and substance misuse services and HMP Prisons. Rachel is the Executive Board Member for the European Region for the World Hepatitis Alliance.

Elimination of hepatitis C - what role will you play? - The elimination of hepatitis C will not happen in silos we need to go beyond the current boundaries of care - we all have a role to play. It is critical that we recognise the importance of the role of substance misuse services, peers and harm minimisation within all aspects of HCV care. In doing this we will ensure no one is left behind when we eliminate in 2030.

Jamie Bridge

Jamie Bridge is the Chief Operating Officer for the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) – a global network of NGOs, which he joined in 2012. Jamie is also a Steering Group member for the National Needle Exchange Forum in England (having been Chair of the Forum for several years). Prior to joining IDPC, Jamie has worked in Geneva as a harm reduction technical expert at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and at Harm Reduction International in London. Jamie started his career working in a drug treatment service in the UK, and has an MSc in drug policy and a BSc in psychology. In 2018 and 2019, Jamie was elected as the Chair of the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs (VNGOC).

Closing Speech - Jamie will be delivering the closing speech of the conference.

Following the conference we will be holding our AGM, all attendees are welcome to join in.