NCETA launches new AOD knowledgebase

The National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction has just launched a new website

The National Alcohol and Drug Knowledgebase

 

The site has four knowledge areas; alcohol, cannabis, pharmaceuticals, and methamphetamines.  At present only the "alcohol" section of the website has been finished.

 

The information presented is intended for clinicians, researchers, policy makers and the general public.  All of the information has been presented in an easy-to-read, easy-to-navigate question and answer format.  They have evaluated and analysed a number of key resources to provide the answers, meaning that the end user does not need to wade through the huge amounts of information available and try to critic the information themselves.  The information provided in the answers is brief and references are included as a separate page. 

 

The Alcohol Section of the Knowledgebase contains more than 130 frequently asked questions (FAQs) about:
 · Consumption patterns
· Alcohol use and the workplace
· Alcohol-related harms
· The impact of alcohol consumption on crime and violence
· Treatment
· Young people

 

It is envisaged that the website will be updated frequently to ensure the information is always current.

 

 

Measuring global emotion

The CSIRO along with the Black Dog Institute have begun a project mapping emotions expressed in content posted on Twitter.  The "We feel ..." project allows you to search by emotion, region and date.  By clicking through the emotions you are able to see the words that are used to categorise Tweets.

The explorer tab (the first page that opens) provides a nice visual representation of your search...

whilst the table builder allows you to conduct a more refined search...



 There are yet to be any papers released on the data, but the site is free, relatively easy to use, and an interesting insight into global emotion.

Winter School Conference Day 3 - What the Tweets told us

If you want a wrap up of all the tweets about Winter School in a lovely package with great explanations you can visit the Lives Lived Well storify site:
https://storify.com/LivesLivedWell/2014-australian-winter-school


Here's just a brief insight into what was happening on the third day (2nd day of conference presentations) at Winter School.

Waste water analysis
Professor Wayne Hall presented on waste water analysis as a means of determining drug use.

If this is a topic that you are interested in, you may like to read:

Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice report "Measuring drug use patterns in Queensland through waste water analysis"

Hall, W., Prichard, J., Paul Kirkbride, R. B., Thai, P. K., Gartner, C., Lai, F. Y., ... & Mueller, J. F. (2012). An analysis of ethical issues in using wastewater analysis to monitor illicit drug useadd_3887 1767.. 1773. Addiction, 107, 1767-1773.

http://www.uqccr.uq.edu.au/media/80944/12.09.11_-_an_analysis_of_ethical_issues_in_using_wastewater_analysis.pdf


Novel psychoactive substances
Panel discussion on novel psychoactive substances

For further information consult

Bruno, R., Poesiat, R., & Matthews, A. J. (2013). Monitoring the Internet for emerging psychoactive substances available to Australia. Drug and alcohol review, 32(5), 541-544. Available on request from the library.

 

The challenge of new psychoactive substances 2013 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

 

 

Health promotion stream

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For further info read the FARE report "Health professionals' use of Australian Alcohol Guidelines: Baseline survey: Report findings July 2014"

 

 

Alcohol related violence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Miller, presenter on this topic, is a frequent contributor to The Conversation, and you can read articles by him related to alcohol fuelled violence here, here, and here

 

 

 

Social marketing campaigns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For further reading:

Jones, S. C., & Magee, C. A. (2011). Exposure to alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption among Australian adolescents. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 46(5), 630-637.

http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/content/46/5/630.long

 

Hall, D. V., Jones, S. C., & Hoek, J. (2011). Direct to consumer advertising versus disease awareness advertising: Consumer perspectives from down under. Journal of Public Affairs, 11(1), 60-69.

http://tinyurl.com/kzxhdsa

 

 

 

If you attended Winter School and would like to share some of your learnings please comment below or contact the library about contributing a blog post.

 

 

 

Winter School Day 2 - What the Tweets told us

Winter School, an annual conference for AOD professionals, began on Wednesday in Brisbane.  Day 1 was dedicated to workshops, with presentations and panels starting yesterday.

Whilst some of our staff have been at the event, and will no doubt come back and share some of the presentations they've seen (perhaps here on the blog *less then subtle hint*),  we've been watching the tweets from the conference to see what the hottest topics have been.  Here's a summary for those who haven't been there...


Dr Adam Winstock - The Internet and Drugs
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was a lot of discussion around the first presentation by the International Keynote speaker. Dr Winstock comes from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London. 
You may have come across the college before, as they are quite involved in AOD research and I've cover them here briefly once when they offered a free online course.

On the topic of drug use and harm





And, of course, on the topic of drugs for sale on the Internet.  Availability was mentioned in several tweets, as was cryptocurrencies that make detection of purchases difficult.  Also discussed was the assertion that the first thing purchased via the Internet was cannabis!

Alcohol Ad Review
Plenty of interest (and tweets) about the 2nd Alcohol Advertising Review Board Annual report.  Particularly, around alcohol advertising on social media.

Beat da binge campaign
A number of people discussing the "Beat da binge" campaign, and Ian Patterson's presentation on the positives of a community approach in Indigenous communities.

You can find out more about this campaign and its reported effectiveness here, here, and here.


Youth stream
The youth focused stream of the conference is also attracting a bit of discussion online

Undoubtedly, there will be plenty of discussion online today.  If you are on Twitter the conference is using #AWS2014, and you can search this to pull up relevant tweets.



National Drugs Strategy Household Survey - 2013 first stats

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has begun releasing results from the 2013 National Drugs Strategy Household Survey.  The NDSHS looks at the prevalence of current use and lifetime use of drugs and alcohol, by examining a cross section of the Australian population. 

Today's media release touches on some of the trends that have been identified in the data.  The full report is due for release at the end of the year.

Some of the information, so far...

 

Tobacco

18-24 y/o who had never smoked had significantly increased from 2010 (from 72% to 77%)

Daily smoking has declined from 15.1% (2010) to 12.8%

Younger smokers have delayed smoking up-take from 14.2y/o (1995) to 15.9y/o

 

More from the NDSHS on Tobacco

 

 



Alcohol 

 

Daily drinking has declined significantly from 7.2% (2010) to 6.5% (2013)

The proportion of 12-17y/o abstaining from alcohol from 64% (2010) to 72% (2013)

There have been significant decreases in people over 14 y/o exceeding lifetime risk guidelines, 20% (2010) to 18.2% (2013)

In 2013, more people thought that alcohol caused the most drug-related deaths and this was the most commonly mentioned drug (34%), increasing from 30% in 2010, and for the first time was higher than tobacco.

 

More from the NDSHS on Alcohol

 

 

Illicit Substances

 

In 2013, 42% of Australians reported that they had used substances illicitly

The number of people participating in illicit drug use is increasing

There have been significant decreases in the use of ecstasy (from 3.0% to 2.5%), heroin (from 0.2% to 0.1%) and GHB (from 0.1% to less than 0.1%)

Misuse of pharmaceuticals has significantly increased from 4.2% to 4.7%

2013 was the first year the survey collected data on synthetic substances, it was found that 1.2% of the population (about 230,000 people) had used synthetic cannabinoids in the last 12 months, and 0.4% (about 80,000 people) had used another psychoactive substance such as mephedrone.

 

More from the NDSHS on Illicit substances

 

 

 

 

 



Podcasts for PD

Considered podcasts for a professional development activity? 




Podsocs is a site compiling podcasts for social workers, hosted by Griffith University
http://www.podsocs.com/
Some sample topics:
- Social work in disasters
- Social work, robots and a technological future
- Finding Aboriginal identity

ABC Radio National's All In The Mind program has an archive of podcasts.  The show explores the connection between brain and behaviour
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/
Sample topics:
- Willpower
- The forces that shape us
- Brain training for mental illness

The Wise Counsel Podcast has interviews on the topic of mental health and psychotherapy.  This one doesn't have recent content, but the archives are interesting nonetheless.
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_index.php?idx=119&w=9
Sample topics:
- Organize your mind, organize your life
- Trauma and art
- Forensic psychology


As always, if you have any suggestions for your colleagues please share in the comments.

5 Mental Health PD activities that you can do in less than 15 minutes

Time poor and haven't done your professional development for the month?  Try one of these online activities.


Watch Treating anxiety disorders: educational videos a 6 part educational series on treating anxiety - for training Master's level clinicians.  Produced by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.  Takes about 15mins in total to view them all.


Drawing up a support chart A practice activity from ReachOut


Read one of the journal articles from the free-to-access International Journal of Mental Health Systems


Watch Vikram Patel's TED talk Mental health for all by involving all


Participate in a professional discussion on the PsychCentral forums




Have a quick PD activity to share with your colleagues? Comment below