This webinar will take place on Wednesday 18th June 2025 focusing on ‘Why language is important’ when communicating about substance use. We will also be launching our ‘Why language matters‘ terminology guide that has been co-produced with people with lived and living experience of substance use.

Our guest speakers are:

Deb Hussey

Account Support & Harm Reduction Lead, Exchange Supplies

Deb Hussey is the Account Support and Harm Reduction Lead at Exchange Supplies. With personal experience of problem substance use, she is passionate about involving people with lived and living experience in service development and delivery.

Deb recently led a co-production project in Somerset, where she ensured that the lived experience contributors were at the centre of the project. As National Safer Lives Lead, Deb works to support Turning Point’s response to the increase in drug-related deaths, with a focus on harm reduction and increasing naloxone awareness, distribution, and carriage across their services.

At Turning Point, Deb believes that lived experience should be included in every aspect of their service, from involving people they support in service design and delivery to having staff use their own experiences to enhance the support they offer.

 

Rob Barker

Campaigns and Communications Lead, Barod

Rob has been working in the substance use field for nearly 15 years and is currently the Campaigns and Communications Lead for Barod. During that time, Rob has held multiple positions across the organisation, as well as completing a Churchill Fellowship in 2017. Rob is passionate about ensuring everyone has access to evidenced-based information that allows for informed choices when it comes to substance use. Most recently, Rob worked with multiple lived and living experience groups to help produce Barod’s ‘Why language matters’ terminology guide, that will be launched at this webinar.

This webinar will take place on Thursday 17th July 2025 at 10am, focusing on family and concerned others of people who use substances. As part of our ‘Setting the blueprint for a more equal and prosperous Wales for people who use substances’, we are asking for ‘Concerned others to be a recognised group of people within their own right and adequately supported to help improve the health and wellbeing of themselves and their loved ones’. Our speakers will be focusing on the work and support that is taking place and available for family and concerned others, here in Wales.

Our guest speakers are:

Anna Lewis

Young Person’s Service Manager, Cardiff and The Vale Drug and Alcohol Service (CAVDAS)

I have worked in the substance use field for over 25 years in a variety of roles including open access and adult criminal justice services, before moving to Children & Young persons about 15 years ago.  Over the last 7 years I have been working within the teams to develop a family and concerned other offer, that is not an add on to adult services but its own stand-alone strand.

I started this work in Gwent before moving to the new service covering Cardiff & The Vale.  When we started in CAVDAS we had one worker from the CYP team and one worker in adult services.  The team have grown over the last three years and now have their own team leader and 3 full time staff.  I am very proud of the work that is being done across the areas and the change in mindset that allows us to see this support as vitally important in its own right

Kate Doyle

Team Leader, Cardiff and The Vale Drug and Alcohol Service (CAVDAS)

I have worked in the field for many years, I started as a volunteer, supporting young people in the justice system who had experienced exploitation. I was a part of the design and delivery of the primary school substance use education package and worked in education and youth settings delivering substance use education and harm reduction messages. I was always passionate about supporting and advocating for children, young people, and their families. I always felt there was a void in support for people impacted by other people’s drug and alcohol use, specifically young people. When CAVDAS started I worked along side adult services and this lead to supporting children of the clients who engaged in adult services. The growth of the FCO team has been incredible and I am very proud to lead the family team as we continue to grow.

Andrew McCutchion

CYP Family and Concerned Other Worker, Cardiff and The Vale Drug and Alcohol Service (CAVDAS)

Born in the Midlands, Andrew has spent the last twenty years using his own lived experience working in services and setting up creative projects for those in recovery with a special interest in integrating the local community. Having worked in both Adult services and aftercare, Andrew now works in the Family and Concerned strand with a strong belief in the need for systemic change and a move away from family being seen as carers. A strong advocate for Trauma informed practice Andrew Is a lifelong Coventry City fan the true CCFC.

Joely Rose

Team Leader, Gwent Drug and Alcohol Family Service (GDAFS)

I am the Team Leader for Gwent Drug and Alcohol Family Service (GDAFS) covering Caerphilly, Newport, Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire, and Torfaen.  I have been in the substance use field for over twenty years, with experience in numerous strands, working within the adult, children and young people, criminal justice, and family services.

Mike Blanche

Family Worker, Gwent Drug and Alcohol Family Service (GDAFS)

I have been working with concerned others for 27 years after issues within my own family. After volunteering for a year providing a listening ear to parents, I became a founding member of DAFS and took up the role of coordinator. I am presently a family worker with GDAFS and I run three family support groups with both on line and face to face group meetings.

 

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This webinar will take place on Monday 1st September at 14:00pm, focusing on the Drug Overdose Good Samaritan Act. As part of our ‘Setting the blueprint for a more equal and prosperous Wales for people who use substances’, we are asking for Wales to become the first country in Europe, and follow Canada’s lead, and many states in the US, in implementing such legislation that can provide legal protection for individuals who experience or witness a suspected drug-related overdose. The act will help reduce fear of police attending overdose events and encourage people to seek emergency help and help save a life. Under current laws, many will, and do not respond in the most appropriate manner due to fear of arrest and prosecution. We will be hearing about Canada’s experience of their own Drug Overdose Good Samaritan Act, as well as support for implementing such legislation here in Wales.

Peredur Owen Griffiths MS

Senedd Regional Member for Plaid Cymru and chair of the Substance Use and Addiction – Cross Party Group

As the son of a minister, Peredur had already lived in many different parts of Wales before he went to Glan Clwyd secondary school in St Asaph, including Pumsaint in Carmarthenshire, Moelfre in Ynys Môn, Lixwm in Flintshire. Peredur has a Masters Degree in Control Systems Engineering from the University of Sheffield, and now lives in Caerphilly.

As a student in Sheffield, Peredur took a job in banking. After completing his degree, Peredur was fast-tracked into being a Bank Manager for Santander, and was able to move back to Wales to complete his training. Whilst with Santander, Peredur worked in branches across south Wales, including Newport, Monmouth, Caerphilly, Merthyr Tydfil, Blackwood, Cwmbran, Barry, Tonypandy, and Cardiff. After Santander, came Principality Building Society, where Peredur worked as a Business Development Manager for the residential mortgage arm of the business. After 13 years in the Financial sector, Peredur joined Christian Aid as Regional Coordinator for South Wales and Legacy Officer for Wales as a whole. During this time, he joined the Board of Directors for Displaced People in Action, a charity working to place refugees. His next step was to join Cytûn: Churches together in Wales, where he worked with the many faith groups across Wales.

Peredur has been a Community Councillor for Trecenydd in Caerphilly since 2017 and served for two years as the Chair of Penyrheol, Trecenydd and Energlyn Community Council. He previously served as Chair of the Plaid Cymru Caerphilly Constituency. A long time campaigner for Plaid Cymru, Peredur was elected to the Senedd the first time he stood for election.

Image source: Senedd.Wales. Please click here to view the licence for the use of this image.

 

Corey Ranger

Director, Harm Reduction Nurses Association (Canada)

Based in unceded Quw’utsun Territory, Corey Ranger (he/him) is an uninvited settler on these lands. Corey is a registered nurse with extensive experience in street outreach, community, and public health nursing with additional training in project management and quality improvement. Corey has focused primarily on harm reduction since 2013 beginning in Alberta and now in British Columbia. At present, Corey is the Clinical Director at AVI Health & Community Services, a board of director at Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC), and a research and communications intern with the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC).

More speakers to be announced soon.

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This webinar will take place on Thursday 25th September at 14:00pm, focusing on Safer Inhalation Devices. As part of our ‘Setting the blueprint for a more equal and prosperous Wales for people who use substances’, we want ‘to be able to give out safer inhalation devices to people who use crack cocaine via needle and syringe programmes’. Currently, drug treatment services across the UK are prohibited from providing SIDs to people who use crack cocaine, under the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA) 1971, section 9A, However, there has been a significant rise in both people reporting crack cocaine, and cocaine related deaths. We will hear what plans are afoot, here in Wales regarding SIDs, as well as the impact they have had, on the ground, when such harm reduction interventions have been piloted.

Rick Lines

Head of Substance Misuse and Vulnerable Populations for Public Health Wales

Rick Lines is Head of Substance Misuse and Vulnerable Populations for Public Health Wales, and has been working in harm reduction since 1993. He has been called ‘a key figure in the emerging field of human rights and drug policy’ and is known for his work and writing on topics including international drug control law, prisoners’ rights, HIV and human rights, capital punishment and harm reduction.  He is the former Executive Director of Harm Reduction International and of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, and is co-founder and Chair of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy at the University of Essex.  Rick holds a Professorship in the Department of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy at Swansea University.

 

Mat Southwell

Managing and Technical Director of Coact Technical Support

Mat Southwell is Managing and Technical Director of Coact Technical Support. Coact is a community-led training and consultancy company that supports harm reduction, drug treatment, and community mobilisation with people who use drugs around the world. Mat has been a longstanding champion of responses to people who use stimulant drugs. He founded the Crack Squad, a peer education initiative and facilitated a training partnership with the Royal College of General Practice that resulted in their ground-breaking Guidance for working with cocaine and crack users in primary care (2004). Mat led a team of community-led experts who researched and drafted the WHO UNODC UNAIDS Technical Guide on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support with people who use stimulant drugs (2019) Mat has developed and delivered the training toolkit that supports the 8 interventions recommended in the Technical Guide. Mat is the Community Investigator on Professor Magdalena Harris’ Safe Inhalation Pipe Provision study, which tests the value of distributing pipes to people who use crack cocaine. Mat will introduce a new technical resource on stimulant pipe provision that Coact has produced as part of the Unitaid-funded study into Hepatitis C elimination in low and middle income countries.

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