Just got notification of this conference on 12th July being held jointly by ANSA and SMP in Wembley. Drat! I'm already booked to do that day for RCGP Cert, ironically, I will be supporting GPs to develop the necessary skills to work with drug users. There is a debate in the afternoon with the motion:
“This house believes that All Substance Misuse Prescribing should only be done by medical doctors”

As Chris Ford is speaking, but I am not sure whether for or against, there had better be a good response!

I'll post the details when I can I'm not sure how to do it as it's a PDF and i'm not too good with computers.
I can confirm that the debate will be Dr.June Crown V Dr. Chris Ford.
Dr. Crown will be in the Nurses corner. For people who have not heard the author of the 'Crown reports' it will be a great opportunity to meet her and she is a great speaker. Should be a good clean fight and i'll be taking a few bets.
Will be a great day a bit of a shame it's short notice.

Why do these debates always seem to happen AFTER the event? There was the pointless abstinence vs maintenance one in glascow.

It's too late to stop NMP for Substance misuse now isn't it? even if we wanted to (which I don't believe I do incidentally). Might make more sense to debat what sort of support is needed or how much experrience people have to have or something relevant

sorry none of my businees. just having a rant!

Susi,
I guess it is a way of dispelling myths and hearing both sides of something that may be quite contentious. I agree it won't change the outcome.
Susi, might be interesting if you could come Shan Barcroft is going to be there from the NTA.

Hi All

The one day event has been in planning for a long time but we couldnt advertise it because it might not have happened

ANSA is a 'membership' organisation so events are sorted in spare time by the willing few.

Susi
The debate, as Simon says is a great way off 'clearing' the air & giving people chance to say what they feel the need to (do you want me to feed your comment in )
The debate

I agree Susi, but hopefully it will be fun to listen to! I also hope lots of people come to the conference despite the late notice - so folk please publicise it this week!

Thanks for the invite sorry I have booked work in Calderdale on 12th so won't be able to come, but I can't imagine I could say anything Shan wouldn't already have done she will be exceelent spokesperson for NTA view.

Sorry about the rant, yes I do see the point af giving people a chance to air views and would hate to squash dissent, just so long as the issue is finally put to bed at the end, and it doesn't just rake up all the bad feelings again and give everyone the impression it hasn't been resolved after all - my fear is that that would inhibit people from moving forward.

In that spirit, thanks for the offer Malcolm, but I'm not sure feeding back from me would actually be that constructive, might just prolong debate unnecessarily!!

There is a write up of the conference in the 31/7 edition of Drink and Drugs News - www.drinkanddrugs.net if anyone is interested.
I'm off to France on holiday now!

Au revoir!

I didn't manage to find the report of the conference on the web. Does anyone know what was the final conclusions were?

Nat,
didn't you see it in drink and drugs news ?

Hi - it's a bit late after the event, but I'm looking for this link too - the DDN site has a wealth of info but I can't find this conference mentioned. Also got sidetracked in the work on Vulnerablity , Sex work & problematic Drug Use, which makes interesting reading .....

the write up was in the magazine. Back issues are on the net. this was the 31/7 edition according to Beverley

Here is the Link and the ppt. presentations are posted on thi site.
http://www.drinkanddrugs.net/drinkanddrugsnews/310706.pdf
regards

Simon