Ketamine use in the UK has increased rapidly, particularly among younger people. Services are now seeing growing numbers of people experiencing ketamine dependence and serious health complications such as ketamine bladder syndrome. Coact, working with HIT and peer pioneers from “Generation K”, has developed a whole-area learning and development event to help local systems strengthen their response.

Making changes in any aspect of your life can be really hard – even when we know our behaviour is causing us harm. Motivational Interviewing is a conversation that supports people to make difficult changes to their lifestyle or behaviour, to feel empowered, listened to and included in their own care.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma are prevalent in the lives of people seeking help with substance-related problems. The use of alcohol and other drugs is often a form of self-medication, which may relieve prolong and extreme short term. Working in a trauma-informed way will enable substance misuse services to reach out and support hard to engage vulnerable people who use substances and reverse the harm from trauma, stigma and substance use.

Women who are experiencing menopause and using alcohol /other drugs dependently often face significant challenges around managing their alcohol use, the physical and mental symptoms of menopause plus social changes around their identity.

The session will include exploring and understanding the barriers women experience in accessing harm-reduction services, understanding pragmatic approaches to reducing these barriers, and discussing how working practices need to address these.

This course was designed for anyone working within non-substance misuse services, eg nurses, police, social services staff and other care organisations. However it also works as a great primer for both new and experienced drugs workers. The main focus is on giving delegates the practical skills required to work within a harm reduction methodology.