Contact: For further information and registration please visit the Conference Consortium website: http://www.conferenceconsortium.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=30
Information: Following the recent controversy and debate on the abstinence record of English drug treatment services, the Consortium together with DrugScope are organising a series of half day seminars entitled: ‘Drug Treatment, the Great Debate’ for people working in the field to debate the issues raised.
All 3 seminars will have the same format. Mike will briefly introduce the paper (10 minutes) as it is assumed all those attending will have already had the opportunity to read it and this will be followed by 4 contributions by invited speakers (max 15 minutes each) who will each address the issues raised in the paper from a different perspective. The panel will be balanced in terms of ‘ideology’ and will also have a contribution from service user perspective.
The presentations will be followed by a break with refreshments and then the panel will reconvene for a ‘Question Time’ style dialogue with the audience, the chair acting as the moderator. The chair for the 2 events in England will be Dr Susanne MacGregor, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The chair for the Edinburgh event is Dr Brian Kidd, Vice-chair of the Scottish Alcohol and Drug Action Team Association.
We anticipate that each event will last for about 3 hours, including 15/20 minutes for the refreshment break.
Each event will have two people designated as rapporteurs – 2 staff from DrugScope and the Consortium will fulfil this role, so as to ensure consistency –
and it is our intention to produce a report at the end of the 3 events, in keeping with the ‘work in progress’, promoting a continuing debate around live issues relating to drug treatment and other interventions in the UK.
