Since the legislative and societal shift from addressing public intoxication with a law-enforcement response to a health response, Cohealth, and other providers, have been providing both outreach and temporary sobering up services to people displaying intoxication in public places.

In this presentation, Dean and Andrea reflect on the learnings of operating this service. Dean looks at the current treatment approach to alcohol use disorder and reviews the evidence for adopting a more harm reduction focussed paradigm. Andrea discusses how public intoxication services operate as an entry point to those requiring assistance to manage their use of alcohol.

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About the presenter

Dr. Dean Membrey is a general practitioner and addiction medicine specialist who has over a decade of experience providing health care to people experiencing substance use disorders. He is passionate about providing holistic, patient-centred care in community settings to better understand the social, cultural and psychological influences on their presentation. He currently works at Cohealth Innerspace and provides outreach services in the Melbourne CBD to people experiencing homelessness.

Andrea Fischer is the Director of Community Bases Drug and Alcohol Responses at Cohealth. Andrea has a long career in Public Health, having worked for the Burnet and Doherty Institutes. She specialises in managing large-scale public health activities, in Victoria and overseas. Her passion is working with people who use alcohol and other drugs, with an emphasis on infectious diseases prevention, testing and treatment.