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Opportunities and obstacles when preventing initiation into injecting: international perspective
Neil Hunt, Freelance Researcher, Kent

Abstract
Work to prevent initiation into injecting within the UK ("Break the Cycle") has triggered a range of related initiatives in diverse countries such as Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Australia and the USA. Adaptations elsewhere sometimes suggest ways in which programmes could be enhanced in Britain. Experiences in other countries have also highlighted challenges that can arise in particular contexts.

This workshop will summarise some of the main ways that people have altered the programme in other countries and highlight possible ways to improve work in the UK, either by amending it or, integrating it alongside complementary work. These include the use of video, parallel targeted prevention programmes for at-risk youth and targeted work with commercial sex workers.

Potential obstacles to this work encountered principally in Central and Eastern European countries, such as drug cultures where communal home-produced opiates predominate or, where heroin is almost exclusively injected due to low purity, will also be discussed.

Workshop participants will have an opportunity to: - Learn about practice elsewhere - Consider whether there are lessons for work in the UK - Discuss possible ways that obstacles elsewhere could be overcome.

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Biography
Neil Hunt (MSc Social Research) is an Honorary Senior Research Associate at the European Institute for of Social Services, University of Kent, Honorary Research Fellow with the Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Director of Research for the treatment agency KCA (UK). He also works as a freelance researcher and trainer.

A founding director of the UK Harm Reduction Alliance, his work has covered issues including injecting and risk, understanding drug trends, peer influence and young people, clubbers' drug use, human rights and drug user involvement. He developed the 'Break the Cycle' intervention to reduce injecting that has been disseminated nationally by the Department of Health. Currently, he is advising on adaptations of the programme in Canada and within Central and East Europe.

He has completed various commissioned reviews of the evidence base for harm reduction. Recent work has included: work on the effectiveness of 'Quasi-Compulsory Treatments' such as Drug Treatment and Testing Orders; a Department of Health study of 'early exit' from treatment; an evaluation of the distribution of foil packs to promote transitions from injecting within needle and syringe programmes; development of guidance for the operation of drug consumption rooms in the UK; and, the production of national guidance for England on the management of speedballing.