Alcohol and other drugs
Overview
The National Surveillance System for alcohol and drug misuse and overdose, funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health, and the Victorian Ambo Project funded by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, provides timely and robust information regarding acute harms associated with alcohol and other drug misuse and overdose in Australia in partnership with the ACT Ambulance Service, St John Ambulance Northern Territory, NSW Ambulance, Queensland Ambulance Service, Ambulance Tasmania, Ambulance Victoria and St John’s Ambulance WA.
This monitoring project utilises data derived from in-depth ambulance service records to examine harmful use and overdose of heroin, alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs and other illicit substances. Importantly, this project provides consistent, detailed and timely data on harms associated with alcohol and other drug use, not captured by other data systems. This national system was built on an ongoing project developed in Victoria, with project data informing policy responses and interventions that target alcohol and other drug use, generating numerous reports for local government, state government and other stakeholders as well as peer-reviewed journal publications.
Project team
Turning Point team
Dr Debbie Scott, Dr Cherie Heilbronn, Dr Rowan Ogeil, Dr Dhanya Nambiar, Dr Foruhar Moayeri, Ms Jessica Killian, Dr James Wilson, Ms Agatha Faulkner, Mr Sam Campbell, Turning Point ambulance data coding team, database staff.
Learn more about this project
Publications:
- Grigg J., Killian, J., Matthews, S., Scott, D., Arunogiri, S., Manning, V., Taylor, D., Crossin, R., Smith, K., Lubman, L (2019) Recent trends in acute synthetic cannabinoid harms resulting in ambulance attendance. Drug and Alcohol Review 38, S50-S50.
- Lam, T., Kuhn, L., Hayman, J., Middleton, M., Wilson, J., Scott, D., Lubman, D., Smith, K., Nielsen, S. (2020) Recent trends in heroin and pharmaceutical opioid-related harms in Victoria Australia up to 2018. AddictionFeb;115(2):261-269.
- Nielsen, S., Crossin, R., Middleton, M., Lam, T., Wilson, J., Scott, D., Martin, C., Smith, K., & Lubman, D. (2019) Comparing rates and characteristics of ambulance attendances related to extramedical use of pharmaceutical opioids in Australia from 2013-2018. Addiction. In press.
- Arunogiri, S., Moayeri, F., Crossin, R., Killian, J., Smith, K., Scott, D., & Lubman, D. (2019) Trends in GHB-related.