News & Events
- 05-05-08 : Library: 22nd Edition of "Network" Available Online
- 01-05-08 : General: RCGP 13th National Conference Review
- 01-04-08 : General: Results of SMMGP Web Site Survey 2008
- 01-04-08 : General: New Postal Address for SMMGP
- 28-03-08 : General: Don't Forget to Book for the RCGP 13th National Conference!
- 06-03-08 : General: ANSA Conference Prices Revised to Enable More to Attend
- 05-03-08 : Library: 21st Edition of the "Network" Newsletter Available
- 27-02-08 : General: SMMGP Web Site Survey 2008
- 24-02-08 : General: Consultation Draft of NTA Clinical Governance Guidance
- 01-01-08 : General: New SMMGP Member Survey Results Section
Library: 22nd Edition of "Network" Available Online
(Posted 5th May 2008)
Issue 22 of "Network", the SMMGP Newsletter, is now available to read online or download in Adobe Acrobat PDF format from the Newsletters section in the Resource Library.
General: RCGP 13th National Conference Review
(Posted 1st May 2008)
The 13th National Management of Drug Users in Primary Care Conference
Meeting the needs of diverse populations: hard to reach or easy to ignore?
24th - 25th April 2008. The Brighton Centre, Brighton
This was an exciting and challenging event, enhanced by the wonderful backdrop of the waves on Brighton's seafront. Delegates were asked, "is there such a thing as a hard to reach group, or are services difficult to access?" The consensus was that providers need to do more to make access to services easier, and this will involve listening to all groups of the communities they serve, in particular those who are the most socially excluded. The role of service users, and members of excluded groups are particularly important in achieving this as several of the excellent presentations showed, including Anna Millington's talk on working with parents and their children, Lyn Matthew's presentation on drugs and sex working, Abd Al-Rahaman's talk on working with all populations, and the research conducted by the Counted4 Peer Research Team showed.
Martyn Glynn argued that we as service providers also have an important role in "cultural brokerage" with our communities, suggesting that we do not have to come from the same cultural group as our communities in order to communicate, but that we do need to have the capacity to listen and to understand the communities we provide a service for, and to adapt our services to provide a flexible response to meet the needs of all sections of our communities.
All the major sessions were rated highly, in particular the Steroids and Stimulant session with Jim McVeigh who explained the public health aspects of steroids (Action man will never be the same again - to understand visit the Conference Reports & Presentations section of this web site to read the report when it becomes available in the near future) and Matt Cope giving a personal view of stimulant use.
Question Time worked well with lots of lively discussion from the panel of Hugo Luck (NTA) Sebastian Saville (Release) Anna Milligton (Independent Consultant and User Activist) and Fran Davis (GPwSI). The floor raised a range of current topics from the "drugs world" such as lack of hepatitis C treatment, the lack of emphasis on alcohol, legislation of drugs and much more.
As always there were a range of excellent workshops, many of which in true "workshop" style were challenging and thought provoking. There was a high quality of paper presentations at this year's Conference, an area that we are aiming to develop further at next year's event - so please consider developing a paper over the coming year that you can submit! We were also very pleased that there was an increase in submissions of films and other media, with practitioners finding a variety of ways to use film and CD Rom as training and educational tools. This year's evening event was particularly lively (and pink and sparkly!) with a packed dance floor into the small hours of the morning.
So put the date of May 14th and 15th 2009 in your diaries for the 14th conference in Liverpool. The working title is "Working with drug users in primary care 'Family medicine - cradle to grave'" with sessions on young people, the meaning of recovery, working with children (not just focusing on child protection), pensioners, families and much much more. So start thinking of good speakers, including yourselves, and those papers you are going to submit now!
Conference presentations & notes will be available as soon as possible in the Conference Reports & Presentations section.
General: Results of SMMGP Web Site Survey 2008
(Posted 8th Apr 2008)
The results from the recent SMMGP Web Site User Survey are now available, and can be seen on the About the SMMGP Web Site page.
Amongst other things, we received a lot of constructive comments and suggestions as to how the site might be improved, as well as many possible additions for the Links section. All of these ideas and suggestions are being considered as part of the site's continuing development.
Please see the About the SMMGP Web Site page for full details of the survey results, and a comparison with a similar surveys conducted in 2005 and 2007.
We would like to say "thank you" to everyone who took part in the survey.
General: New Postal Address for SMMGP
(Posted 1st Apr 2008)
The SMMGP offices have now moved, and our new postal address is as follows:
SMMGP
c/o National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse
8th Floor
Hercules House
Hercules Road
London SE1 7DU
This address is effective immediately!
For full contact details, please see the Contact Us page.
General: Don't Forget to Book for the RCGP 13th National Conference!
(Posted 28th Mar 2008)
RCGP 13th National Conference: Management of Drug Users in Primary Care
Meeting the Needs of Diverse Populations - Hard to Reach or Easy to Ignore?
24-25 April 2008, Brighton Centre, Brighton
The conference is the largest event in the UK for GPs, shared care workers, drug users, nurses and other primary care staff, specialists, commissioners, and researchers interested in, and involved with, the management of drug users in primary care.
The conference
This year's conference helps us meet the needs of groups who are excluded: the homeless, sex workers, people from black and ethnic minority groups, and older people. With the increasing experience of primary care in drug treatment, we believe this is a challenge that we can meet. We shall also look at the needs of other groups it is easy to forget, for example steroid users, stimulant users and the children of drug users.
Yet again we have a full and varied programme of talks, special interest sessions and films, with ample time to discuss and question not only the presenters, but also to question our own attitudes and prejudices.
Primary care in conjunction with shared care is as always the solid platform from which we can expand and push the boundaries of our confidence and knowledge. It is now time to consider how to provide services for those who have not been included, and come to a deeper understanding of what has led them to be excluded.
We look forward to seeing you as part of the mix of doctors, patients, carers and colleagues in this field, at the conference centre in Brighton.
For further information, please see the Courses & Events page.
General: ANSA Conference Prices Revised to Enable More to Attend
(Posted 6th Mar 2008)
In the past 3 months there have been significant documents released from the NTA, Department of Health and NICE:
- 2008 Drug Strategy
- 3 month Consultation on Clinical Governance NTA
- UK Clinical Guidelines 2007
- Non-medical prescribing Guidelines 2007
Substance Misuse Nursing has never been higher on the agenda.
In light of this the Association of Nurses in Substance Abuse (ANSA) have significantly reduced the cost of their 2008 National Conference, keeping the price as low as possible to enable more nurses and allied professionals to attend. The conference is open to all professionals in health, social care and criminal justice services with an interest in substance misuse.
The revised cost is just £39.00 per person, plus £10 per person for accommodation if required.
The conference is being held 27-28 March, at Chester University. Attend and help influence the future of Nursing in Substance Misuse!
For further information, please see the Courses & Events page, or the ANSA web site.
Library: 21st Edition of the "Network" Newsletter Available
(Posted 5th Mar 2008)
Issue 21 of "Network", the SMMGP Newsletter, is now available to read online or download in Adobe Acrobat PDF format from the Newsletters section in the Resource Library.
General: SMMGP Web Site Survey 2008
(Posted 27th Feb 2008)
We try hard to ensure that the SMMGP web site provides the best service it can... you can help us achieve this by completing a very short and completely anonymous SMMGP Web Site Survey.
The survey consists of just 6 questions with tick-box answers, although there's room for you to add comments as well if you have any suggestions or want to mention something about the site which has been bothering you.
The survey will only be available unil Sunday 16 March 2008, so please complete it as soon as possible!
We will post the results of the survey on the site following completion, and use the them to help guide the future development of the site.
Your help is very much appreciated.
General: Consultation Draft of NTA Clinical Governance Guidance
(Posted 24th Feb 2008)
Clinical governance is an increasingly important quality and safety assurance framework for all drug treatment providers (not just those in the NHS) and commissioners.
The NTA has published a consultation draft of guidance on clinical governance in drug treatment. There are important issues about how clinical governance can work across complex drug treatment systems and how this can be helpful to drug treatment services and their commissioners.
The following documents are available on the NTA web site:
- Clinical Governance in Drug Treatment - A Draft Good Practice Guide for Providers and Commissioners
Issued for consultation 21 February 2008 - Consultation Response Proforma
Responses to the consultation MUST be submitted on the proforma by 14 May 2008.
Please see the NTA web site for further details.
General: New SMMGP Member Survey Results Section
(Posted 1st Jan 2008)
We have added a brand new section to the Resource Library called SMMGP Member Survey Results.
Results included in this section so far are:
- 2007 Clinical Guidelines Survey
- Contingency Management Consultation
- Network Newsletter Reader Survey
If you would like to be able to take part in similar surveys, why not become a member of SMMGP. It's completely free, and there are lots of benefits to joining. See the SMMGP Membership Form for more details.