Mat has worked in the drugs and HIV fields as a practitioner, manager and activist for 30 years. Mat was an early harm reduction worker in the UK and in 1991 founded the pioneering Healthy Options Team (HOT), a harm reduction agency that employed peer workers and used community mobilisation strategies with people who use drugs (PWUD).
Mat went on to be Head of Service for the wider health-based drug services in East London until 1998. This included managing Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) programmes and reorganising drug treatment services to promote the involvement of General Practitioners and the effective management of PWUD with complex needs.
He has sustained an interest in developing collaborative peer and professional responses to new drugs trends and stimulant drugs. Mat has a particular interest in ketamine and recently gave evidence to the UK’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs Working Group on Ketamine.
Mat is also an experienced drug policy and drugs/HIV global advocate.
