People - Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs: Impact and policies


Dr Richard Chenhall, BA (Hons, PhD)

Lecturer in Medical Anthropology, Centre for Health and Society, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne.

Richard Chenhall is Lecturer in Medical Anthropology in the Centre for Health and Society at the University of Melbourne. Richard teaches courses at the postgraduate level including Medical Anthropology and Social Science Research Methods. He is currently working on a number of projects focusing on the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, including substance misuse and treatment, sexual health, youth experiences and deviancy and the social determinants of health. He is also conducting research related to alcoholism and self-help groups in Japan. Richard is currently the Secretary on the Council for the Australian Professional Society for Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD), an executive committee member for the Organisation for Intercultural Development (OICD) and is a member of the Australian Anthropological Association, the Society for Applied Anthropology, the Society for Community Research and the Japan Studies Association of Australia.

Tel: +61 3 8344 0826
Fax: +61 3 8344 0824
Email: chenhall@unimelb.edu.au

http://www.sph.unimelb.edu.au/about/allstaff/chenhall_richard
Professor Robin Room, BA, MA, MSoc, PhD(Soc)

Professor of Social Research in Alcohol, School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne
Director, AER Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre
Professor Robin Room is a sociologist who Professor of Social Alcohol Research at the School of Population Health of the University of Melbourne and the Director of the AER Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre. He has previously directed alcohol and drug research centres in the United States, Canada and Sweden.  He has been an advisor for the World Health Organisation since 1975, and has received awards for scientific contributions in the U.S., Sweden, Australia, and internationally.    Professor Room has worked on social, cultural and epidemiological studies of alcohol, drugs and gambling behaviour and problems, and studies of social responses to alcohol and drug problems and of the effects of policy changes.  He is currently the president of the Australian national peak organization of nongovernmental organizations in the field, the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia, and Editor-in Chief of Drug and Alcohol Review.

Email: rroom@unimelb.edu.au
http://www.turningpoint.org.au/research/alcohol_policy_research/alcohol_policy_research_bios.htm
Professor Marcia Langton, B.A. (Hons) ANU, PhD Macq. U., A.M., F.A.S.S.A.

Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies
Centre for Health and Society
Department of Population Health
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
University of Melbourne

Marcia Langton, AM, holds the Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne.  She was awarded a PhD from Macquarie University in 2005. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia and a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). She is a member of the Board of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership and Chair of the Museums and Galleries of the Northern Territory Board.

Tel: +61 3 8344 9159
Fax: +61 3 8344 0824
Email: marciall@unimelb.edu.au

http://www.sph.unimelb.edu.au/about/allstaff/langton

Dr Sarah MacLean, BA(Hons), MA, PhD

Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Health and Society, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne  and Turning Point.

Sarah is a sociologist with sustained interest in analysing and contributing to the development of health and welfare policy, particularly as it affects marginalised and young people and users of alcohol and other drugs. In 2007 Sarah completed her PhD research, a qualitative study of the meanings of inhalant use and of associated policy and intervention in Australia.

Sarah recently co-authored ‘Volatile Substance Misuse: A Review of Interventions’ (2008) with Associate Professor Peter d’Abbs. The review has been published by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing as part of the National Drug Strategy Monograph series.  Sarah has published articles in academic journals including Drug and Alcohol Review, Contemporary Drug Problems, Drugs, Education Prevention and Policy, International Journal of Drug Policy, Journal of Youth Studies and Youth Studies Australia.
http://www.turningpoint.org.au/research/health_services/hs_research_bios.htm

Michael Livingston, BappSc(Maths), BInfTech, BA(Hons)

 Research Fellow, Turning Point and Centre for Health and Society, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne.

Michael is a Research Fellow at the AER Centre for Alcohol Policy Research.  Since joining the Centre in 2006, Michael has predominantly been involved in research examining the relationship between physical availability (particularly the density of alcohol outlets) and alcohol-related harms using a range of spatial and longitudinal statistical techniques.  In addition, Michael has undertaken a number of projects focusing on risky drinking amongst young people, including an analysis of recent trends and an examination of individual and environmental factors associated with regular high-risk drinking.
Michael has an undergraduate degree in mathematics and an honours degree in criminology. His honours thesis examined the offending trajectories of a birth cohort of young offenders and the relationship between child maltreatment and crime.  Michael previously worked at JMAG in the School of Criminology at Griffith University, developing simulation models of the juvenile justice and adult corrections systems in Queensland. 

Michael was awarded a Sidney Myer Health Scholarship to undertake a PhD, with funding from the Sidney Myer Fund and IOR Ltd. His PhD project, 'Liberalising Liquor Licensing - implications for alcohol-related harm' will examine the impact of the deregulation of liquor licensing in Victoria and how it affects alcohol consumption, violence and alcohol-related hospitalisations.

http://www.turningpoint.org.au/research/alcohol_policy_research/alcohol_policy_research_bios.htm

Anne-Marie Laslett, BDSc, MDSc, MPH

Research Fellow, Turning Point and Centre for Health and Society, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne.

Anne-Marie commenced work as the Director of the Range and Magnitude of Alcohol’s Harm to Others project at the AER Centre for Alcohol Policy in November 2007. Anne-Marie has worked in the Turning Point Epidemiology Unit since 1995 as the main investigator working on the Alcohol Statistics Handbook series on alcohol availability, patterns of alcohol use, and alcohol-related mortality, morbidity, road crashes and assaults.

Prior to joining Turning Point, Anne-Marie graduated as a dentist, completed a Master’s of Public Health and undertook a Public Health Traineeship in the Department of Human Services, where she worked in protective services, alcohol and drug services, sexual health, mothers' and children's health, and cancer and injury epidemiology.

Anne-Marie was awarded a PhD scholarship jointly from the Sidney Myer Fund and IOR Ltd. Her PhD is exploring alcohol's involvement in child maltreatment cases using data from the Child Protection System and the national harm to others survey.

http://www.turningpoint.org.au/research/alcohol_policy_research/alcohol_policy_research_bios.htm
Sharon Matthews, MSc, BSW, BA(Hons)

Research Fellow, Turning Point and Centre for Health and Society, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne.

Sharon has been conducting health-related research since 1994. In the UK, she worked on one of the major longitudinal cohort studies investigating social health inequalities and impacts to health across the life course. In Australia, she has specialised in substance use and has used a variety of large administrative data sets to examine trends in licit and illicit substance use and related-harms at the national, state and local government area level. She received funding to examine stability and change in women’s alcohol consumption using the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Currently she manages the local area analysis consultancies, as well as coordinating the Australian arm of a large international study examining cultural differences in alcohol use – the GENACIS project (Gender Alcohol and Culture; An International Study). In addition to her publications in the alcohol field, she has a strong publication record from her work on the UK 1958 cohort, as well as presenting at numerous conference and symposia nationally and internationally.

http://www.turningpoint.org.au/research/alcohol_policy_research/alcohol_policy_research_bios.htm
Cathy Segan

NHMRC Research Fellow, Centre for Health Policy, Programs & Economics,
Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne.

Cathy Segan, BA (Hons), PhD holds a NHMRC post-doctoral fellowship and is an Honorary Research Associate of The Cancer Council Victoria, where she previously worked as a behavioural scientist. Over the last ten years Cathy has worked in the development and evaluation of Quit Victoria's smoking cessation services, in particular the Quitline. Her research aims to improve the effectiveness of mass-reach cessation services by exploring barriers to their use, the effectiveness of tailored services for special-needs groups (e.g., people with mental health problems, pregnant women and aboriginal people), and empirically testing behaviour change theories that inform smoking cessation interventions. Cathy is also Subject Co-ordinator of the Program Evaluation component of the Master of Public Health Part 1 subject Health Economics and Program Evaluation.

http://www.findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/researcher/person138236.html
Caroline Clark, BA (Hons), MA, Grad Dip (Health Care History)

Senior Education & Training Officer, Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre PhD candidate, Centre for Health and Society, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne.

Caroline Clark works at Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre where she coordinates and teaches in the Graduate Program in Alcohol and Other Drug Studies. She teaches one of the two core subjects, a study of the social, political and historical context of alcohol and other drug use and problems. She is currently completing her PhD in medical history, writing a social and medical history of alcoholism treatment in Melbourne between 1870 and 1930. Her interests include social and historical framing of alcoholism and its treatment, policy history, globalisation of drug use, gender and drug use.