Mental health, AIDS Conference 2024, Infectious Diseases, ...

“There is a significant overlap between mental health and substance misuse, with over 80% of individuals having both” - Monty Ghosh, MD, University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton

AIDS 2024, the 25th International AIDS Conference, Munich, Germany, from 22 to 26 July 2024. 

An estimated 15,000 participants from around the world will attend AIDS 2024, and the great majority will do so in person.

Infectious Diseases

Working with people who live with infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, Tuberculosis or are affected by a current pandemic situation of SARS-CoV-2 requires a well-equipped ‘toolbox’ of skills and knowledge, multiple levels of action: direct practice with specific, vulnerable target groups, individual casework, and social group work. In the face of rapidly changing pandemic situation, responsive and adaptive social work practice is especially important in relation to sustainable development goals.

SOLID Project

SOLID - Social work and strengthening of NGOs in development cooperation to treat drug addiction. As social work practice and research with drug users is still at its early stages, in both China and Central Asia, the SOLID project can be used as a tool in establishing and implementing social work education, practice, and research.

Stimulant use disorders (StUDs)

Rates of StUDs are rising, as are stimulant potency and rates of stimulant use in combination with opioids. These factors have contributed to overdose death rates increasing three-fold for cocaine and twelve-fold for other stimulants—including methamphetamine, amphetamine, and prescription stimulants—in the past ten years. The ASAM/AAAP Clinical Practice Guideline on the Management of Stimulant Use Disorder Beyond overdose deaths, StUD can cause a range of serious and long-term health problems, including cardiac, psychiatric, dental, and nutritional complications

Social work in prisons

Provision of adequate and fair healthcare including OST and psycho-social counselling as well as medical care for incarcerated people is an important aspect for social work. Incarcerated people are often denied the basic medical care that is generally available to people in the civic society, highlighting the injustice and the need for urgent change of policies to address the issue.

Drug Treatment

Social work with addiction and drug treatment practices have been important within the profession’s history and philosophy. Many social workers have to deal with clients who are using drugs problematically or are related to people whose close ones are engaged in problematic drug use. Social workers are needed in drug treatment services as the addiction often bridges a number of social, economic, psychological, and health concerns. Moreover, social workers’ role has become especially important with the acceptance and dissemination of harm reduction approach as an important drug policy strategy.

Opioid Substitution Treatment

The challenge of addiction social work is to find its place between traditional drug treatment strategies and self-help fellowships instead of maintaining a role of mere referral and mediation. Its purpose should be to combine both medical and bio-psycho-social approaches in bridging the gap within current treatment systems. Harm reduction, and opioid substitution treatment (OST) allow precisely that. OST offers a long-term care of people who are diagnosed with addiction to opiates or derivatives.

Harm reduction

Harm reduction is an important policy strategy through which areas of health and integration began to take a different, more humanistic turn. It includes policies, programmes and practices aiming to reduce negative impacts associated with drug use. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social workers have a key role in developing drug treatment and harm reduction interventions.

Lisbon Addictions Conference

From the outset, the European Conference on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies has been about stimulating and promoting high-quality scientific debate, showcasing leading European addiction research in the specialist areas of illicit drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling and other addictive behaviours. Lisbon Addictions is a multidisciplinary conference that provides a forum for networking across the addictions field. Under the overarching theme of Global Addictions, LxAddictions22 will showcase cutting-edge research to help characterise, understand and respond to addiction and addictive behaviours today. Providing opportunities for early-stage researchers to enhance their careers (through dedicated showcase sessions, networking activities and mentoring) is among the priorities of the Programme and Organising Committees.

The event is organised by: the Portuguese General-Directorate for Intervention on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (SICAD); the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA); the journal Addiction/Society for the Study of Addiction (Addiction/SSA); and the International Society of Addiction Journal Editors (ISAJE). 

Several E-Posters of the SOLID partners will be presented at the conference. 

Social Work

The role of social work and drug therapy, prevention, and counselling including social work and psychosocial support in the context of opioid substitution in Europe, and Central Asia and China.

Overdose Prevention

Pverdose is a leading cause of death among people who use opioids. Worldwide, almost 70,000 people die from opioid overdose each year. The number of opioid overdoses has risen in recent years. Opioid overdose is treatable with naloxone.

Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a call for action by all countries to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. In compliance with SDGs, provision of adequate and fair healthcare including OST and psycho-social counselling as well as medical care for incarcerated people is an important aspect for social work and its development in each country partnering in the SOLID project.

Central Asia and China

Drug Situation in Central Asia and China. In Central Asia, the prevalence of opioid use is twice as high as in Europe, in China there are almost 5 million opioid users, still a small number in relation to the total population, but an enormous problem for the healthcare system.

Drug Policy

Drug policy in the West has managed to develop a multi-dimensional treatment and intervention programs, Applicability and adaptation of drug policy are important topics of research from local perspectives in Central Asia and PR China. As most of the funding for HIV/AIDS related prevention strategies and initiatives are funded by international donors, it is often hard to assess the successes and developments in the local policies.

Drug Demand Reduction

Approaches to drug demand reduction have expanded and diversified considerably during the last two decades. New, evidence-based intervention types are developed and evaluated, new settings are included in the treatment and prevention networks, special target populations have gained more attention. 

New Psychoactive Substances

New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) are defined by UNODC as “substances of abuse, either in a pure form or a preparation, that are not controlled by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs or the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, but which may pose a public health threat”.

Hepatitis

Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. Some people with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discolouration of the skin and whites of the eyes, poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pain, and diarrhoea.

COVID-19 and drug use

COVID19 and treatment of drug use disorders. With millions of deaths worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest health crisis of our times. The global society is challenged by the pandemic.