Drug checking around Australia: A snapshot of services, findings, and insights for the festival season
2025-11-26 14:00 - 15:00 (Australia/Melbourne) | Online webinar
As Australia heads into the summer festival season, concerns associated with high-potency and emerging synthetic substances, such as nitazenes, are high. In an evolving drug market, drug checking is increasingly recognised as an important harm reduction and public health tool, supporting both surveillance and informed decision-making.
This webinar will bring together experts from drug checking services across the country, providing a snapshot of the current landscape of drug checking and alert systems in Australia. Through four short presentations, speakers will explore how and where these services operate, their role in national surveillance and alert systems, trends in the illicit drug market, key insights for the festival season, and what’s on the horizon for harm reduction in Australia.

VSURF - Darcy Coulter - Mental illness, substance use disorders, dual diagnosis, and reincarceration among First Nations adults leaving prisons.
2025-10-17 16:00 - 17:00
Email michael.curtis@burnet.edu.au to be sent the event link.

Title: Mental illness, substance use disorders, dual diagnosis, and reincarceration among First Nations adults leaving prisons.

Abstract: Mental illness, substance use disorder (SUD), and their dual diagnosis are highly prevalent among incarcerated populations, though existing prevalence estimates may not be accurate for several methodological reasons. While many studies have demonstrated associations between these diagnoses and future justice system contact, few studies have demonstrated the temporal relationship between diagnosis and reincarceration in First Nations adults. Further, evidence on whether dual diagnosis presents a significantly greater risk of reincarceration than mental illness or SUD alone is scarce and equivocal. In a sample of First Nations adults (n=978) released from prisons, we aimed to: (1) estimate the lifetime prevalence of mental illness, substance use disorder, and dual diagnosis among First Nations adults in prisons, (2) determine the temporality and strength of any association between mental illness, SUDs, or dual diagnosis and reincarceration, and 3) determine whether dual diagnosis presents a greater risk of reincarceration than diagnoses of mental illness or SUD alone.

Speaker bio: Dr Darcy Coulter is a Research Fellow with the Justice Health Group at the enAble Institute and School of Population Health, Curtin University. He holds honorary appointments at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science. He conducts research focussed on healthcare use and health outcomes for justice-involved people, primarily in the context of mental and behavioural disorders. He has considerable experience working with linked administrative data to understand and improve health and justice outcomes in vulnerable populations.

NDRI webinar: Young people, alcohol and risk: understanding recent declines in youth drinking
2025-09-17 16:00 - 17:00
Adolescent alcohol consumption has declined steeply since the early 2000s in many high-income countries. This webinar will summarise the results of a major international collaboration between researchers in Australia, the UK and Sweden to attempt to describe and explain these changes. We will be summarising work that is laid out in more detail in our recently published book, Young People, Alcohol and Risk: A Culture of Caution, which outlines the key themes developed across the course of our work.
Speakers:
A/Prof Michael Livingston (NDRI, Curtin): Michael will introduce the topic, outlining what we know about drinking trends among young people in high income countries alongside trends in a range of other risk-taking behaviours including illicit drug use.
Prof John Holmes (University of Sheffield): John will summarise the key quantitative findings of our research program, explaining the work that we’ve done assessing the links between a variety of potential explanatory factors (e.g. parenting practices, attitudes to risk, the internet and social media) and drinking trends.
Dr Amy Pennay (La Trobe University): Amy will bring everything together, drawing on qualitative data from Australia, Sweden and the UK and laying out the theoretical framework we have developed to explain how generational differences in attitudes to risk have shaped consumption patterns of today’s young people.

Adverse Childhood Experience - Health Impacts
2025-09-10 11:00 - 12:00
To register email sdds@monashhealth.org
The connection between childhood experiences, the brain and development into adulthood. The training will focus on how these adverse occurrences/traumas impact mental health, physical health and how substance use plays a part in the developing body and brain.

Methamphetamine and Harm Reduction
2025-08-21 11:00 - 12:00
Register via email sdds@monashhealth.org
A comprehensive overview of Methamphetamine uses and its impact. Emphasis is on evidence-based approaches to reducing associated acute and chronic risks. This training fosters a compassionate and informed response to methamphetamine use with a focus on harm reduction.

NDRI WEBINAR: Opioid overdose: Evidence, experience and emerging threats
2025-08-20 13:00 - 13:45
NDRI WEBINAR: Opioid overdose: Evidence, experience and emerging threats
WED AUGUST 20TH – 11-11:45am AWST / 1-1:45 AEST
Presenters:
Professor Simon Lenton (National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University)
Ele Morrison (AIVL)
Dr Amanda Roxburgh (Burnet Institute)
Facilitated by Dr Michael Curtis (National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University)
Every opioid overdose is preventable, yet more than 12,000 Australians have died from a drug overdose which included opioids in the past decade.
In NDRI’s August webinar, Dr Michael Curtis will briefly describe current trends in opioid overdose in Australia. Professor Simon Lenton will then present evidence from recent developments in Australian harm reduction initiatives. Ele Morrison will discuss peer perspectives and priorities for reducing opioid overdoses in Australia. Finally, Dr Amanda Roxburgh will present on the emergence of novel synthetic opioids in Australia and implications for harm reduction initiatives.
Please register to join us virtually for the webinar.
Click here for further information about the NDRI webinar series and to join the mailing list for future events, email ndri@curtin.edu.au

NDRI July webinar: Foresight methods and more resilient health policy
2025-07-02 16:00 - 17:00
We live in an increasingly uncertain world. In response to this, the use of Foresight methods has become recognised as a highly valued approach for more effective engagement with stakeholders, to inform policy development and strategic planning exercises, and to increase organisation and sector resilience and preparedness to future events.
In NDRI’s July webinar, hear firsthand insights into how using Foresight methods has increased EU agencies’ ability to prepare for and rapidly respond to new public health challenges in the area of illicit drugs and communicable disease, and take part in a discussion on the possible lessons we can learn from the European experience on how we can be better prepared in Australia to respond effectively to future health challenges.

NDRI WEBINAR – Trends in harms from alcohol: The National Alcohol Indicators Project
2025-06-25 13:00 - 13:45
The National Alcohol Indicators Project (NAIP) is a nationally coordinated project aimed at tracking and reporting on trends in alcohol-related harm in Australia at national, state and local levels. One of the main objectives of the project is to develop a set of indicators for the continual monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of state and national alcohol policies. This webinar will focus on trends in alcohol-related hospitalisations and deaths in Australia.
This webinar will be facilitated by Professor Tanya Chikritzhs, the principal investigator of NAIP. Dr William Gilmore will provide a tour of www.alcoholharmtool.info – an instant, interactive data visualisation tool to identify trends and patterns in alcohol-attributable deaths and hospitalisations in Australia. Associate Professor Michael Livingston’s presentation will examine recent trends in alcohol-related liver disease in Australia, unpacking how rates of deaths and hospital admissions have been influenced by cohort specific patterns of drinking as well as broader social changes. Dr Nic Taylor will discuss how NAIP has been used to evaluate the Northern Territory’s alcohol floor price (Minimum Unit Price).

Challenges in integration and integrated care: psychedelic assisted therapies for addiction and mental illness
2025-05-14 12:00 - 13:00
Join Associate Professor Shalini Arunogiri for a webinar exploring emerging treatments in the alcohol and other drugs (AOD) sector, with a focus on psychedelic-assisted therapies. Dr. Arunogiri is a clinical psychiatrist specialising in addiction and the Deputy Clinical Director at Turning Point, a national centre for addiction treatment, research, and education. She is also an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at Monash University, where she leads research into innovative approaches to treating substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders. With extensive contributions to national policy, clinical training, and service development, Dr. Arunogiri is a recognised leader in the AOD field and currently serves on the board of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD). Key learning outcomes: By the end of this webinar, attendees will be able to: – Understand the current evidence base for the use of MDMA and psilocybin in addiction and related mental health problems – Understand key evidence gaps in existing evidence in psychedelic assisted therapies – Identify and critically appraise challenges with implementation of psychedelic assisted therapies in Australia

NDRI Webinar - Young people and vaping: The pervasiveness of social media marketing and prevention efforts
2025-04-30 13:00 - 13:45
Vaping is a growing public health concern, especially for younger populations. National survey evidence indicates that vaping has increased exponentially in the past 5-10 years among adolescents and young adults.
This webinar brings together a range of speakers to discuss the marketing of vapes on social media, key strategies to reduce vaping among young people, and recent findings from projects aiming to prevent young people from vaping.
Professor Jonine Jancey will discuss how vape content is presented on social media, how this content has been managed and how it will (hopefully) be managed in the future, in the Australian context. Lorena Chapman will provide an overview of Cancer Council WA’s youth vaping prevention and support program, Clear the Air, including an overview of current campaign activities and community-based initiatives that the team is working on to support young people to break free from vaping. Jazlyn East will provide insight into NDRI’s Our Futures Vaping Trial, an evidence-based educational initiative designed to address the rising concern of adolescent vaping in Australia.

NDRI APRIL WEBINAR: The Intersection of Violence and Drug Use Among Women
2025-04-16 16:00 - 16:45
WED APRIL 16th – 2-2:45pm AWST / 4-4:45pm AEST / 7-7:45am BST
Presenters:
Gail Gilchrist, Kings College, London
Sam Colledge-Frisby, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
Jade Lane, Burnet Institute
Facilitated by Shelley Walker & Emma Vieira (National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University)
Women who use drugs are at an increased risk of gender-based violence, which encompasses a range of victimisation and has been linked to negative social and health outcomes. As well, there are unique consequences for this group of women, such as increased and negative interactions with police, higher risk of overdose, adverse impacts on substance use patterns, and impeding treatment engagement or completion.
This webinar will start with an overview of the international literature regarding violence among women who use drugs, provided by Gail Gilchrist. Next, Sam Colledge-Frisby will present findings from a developing study investigating the prevalence of gender-based violence and accessing of medical care among women who inject drugs. Finally, Jade Lane will introduce perspectives from a co-design project focusing on community-led alternative responses to gender-based violence that are suitable to the needs of women with histories of drug use.
Please register to join us virtually for the webinar.
Click here for further information about the NDRI webinar series and to join the mailing list for future events, email ndri@curtin.edu.au
