North Dublin Regional Drugs & Alcohol Task Force: Cannabis Seminar

Seminar

The North Dublin Regional Drugs & Alcohol Task Force are organising a Cannabis Seminer in The Grand Hotel, Malahide, on May 16th 2014.

Session 1 is open to all service providers. Session 2 is open to GPs & Treatment Providers only.

Details

8.30am Registration

9.00am Message from Senator Darragh O’Brien, Chair of North Dublin Regional Drugs & Alcohol Task Force. Introduction by Duncan Smith, Chair of Task Force’s Education Sub Committee.

Session 1 (Open to all Service Providers)

9.10am Dr Adam Winstock : Cannabis: Effects, modes, harms and why they matter?

1. Drug use in Ireland and where cannabis fits in - results of GDS2014
2. Cannabis - basics - what it is, how it works, effects, different types and why it matters?
3. Cannabis related harms
4. Information and community engagement including harm reduction

10.45am Community Solutions to a Community Problem'. An overview of new community based supports for Cannabis users in North Dublin County.

1. North Dublin Community Care Service Vincent Rellis
2. SASSY specialist adolescent substance misuse service Dr Gerry McCarney
3. Cannabis Cessation: Peter McVerry Trust Brian Friel

11:20 Close of Session 1 with Tea/Coffee/Pastries break for all delegates

SESSION 2 (for GPs & Treatment Providers only)

Introduction to Session 2 by Dr Gerry Mc Carney, consultant psychiatrist.

11.30am DR Adam Winstock: Reducing Harm, Supporting Cessation & the Role of the GP’s. A skills workshop for GPs and treatment providers who work with Cannabis users

1. Assessing cannabis use in primary care
2. Identifying common health concerns and laying the foundation for brief intervention
3. Dependence withdrawal and mental health

1.00pm Close of Session 2 followed by Lunch in Coast Restaurant

Speaker Biographies

Dr Adam R Winstock MBBS, BSc, MSc, MD MRCP MRCPsych FAChAM

Adam is a Consultant Addiction Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London. He has written over a 100 papers, monographs and book chapters. He has a particular interest in the assessment, management of cannabis and club drugs. He is also founder and director of Global Drug Survey which runs the world's biggest annual survey of drug use trends and is also the architect of the on line and smart phone apps the drugs meter (www.drugsmeter.com) and drinksmeter (www.drinksmeter.com) and creator of the free on line harm reduction guide, the Global a Drug Survey High-Way Code (www.globaldrugsurvey.com/highwaycode). Adam thinks any dialogue about harm reduction needs to start with a conversation about pleasure. He is interested in applying behavioural economics, social normative feedback to drug use and helping to craft optimal public health responses to drugs.

Dr Gerry McCarney, Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist

Gerry McCarney works as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with the Addiction Services in North Dublin city and county, where his treatment group consists mainly of polydrug-using adolescents. He works at the National Drug Treatment Centre, Pearse Street and covers a large community catchment area in North Dublin with the SASSY community team. He is also a visiting psychiatrist to St. Patrick’s Institution.

Brian Friel, Head of Services, Peter McVerry Trust

Brian Friel has 13 year’s experience of working in the Community/Voluntary sector. Peter McVerry Trust works with over 3,500 individuals each year across a range of services that include information and advice, drug stabilisation, residential methadone detox and cannabis cessation, adult homeless services, under 18s residential services and housing with support services. He is a voluntary sector representative on the Board of the North Dublin Drugs and Alcohol Task Force and also a member of the Community Detox Steering Group.

Vincent Rellis, Case Manager, North Dublin Community Care Service

Vincent Rellis is Case Manager in the newly established North Dublin Community Care Service. With an honours degree in Social Science, Vincent has spent the last few years perfecting his skills with Blenheim CDP in the UK where he was case manager in Insight Haringey ‘Child and Family Drug & Alcohol Service’. Vincent was part of the development team which established this new service in Haringey and has also developed and implemented various tools and instruments including a youth specific risk assessment instrument which is now used widely in the service.