FDS Insight Magazine Jun - Sep 2023

1 I NSIGHTS O UT n February we held our annual International Family Drug Support Day events in Sydney, Brisbane, Rockhampton, Adelaide and Melbourne. In speaking at the Sydney event, I acknowledged the work of our staff around Australia and in head office. It is due to the efforts of our team that we are able to perform the task of supporting families. There have been many people who have contributed to the work of Family Drug Support over the twenty-six years of our existence, several of whom are no longer with us and I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge them, so we remember with thanks Patsy Hersee, Lorrie Jenkins, Laurel Schultz, Ann Symonds, Prof Michael Dawson, Evan Thomas, Graham Morritt, Brian McConnell, Barry Hawes, Jude Byrne, Bruce Loney, Nazha Saeed, Barb Miller, Kath Ashton and other volunteers who are no longer with us. We have recently received exciting news that we have been allocated funding by the ACT Government and we will be establishing services in the national capital in the near future. The International Harm Reduction Conference was held in Melbourne in April and a large contingent of FDS staff attended together with other family groups from around the world. It was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with international harm reduction experts and hearing of those services applying harm reduction principles in very difficult circumstances for some was inspiring. We were able to make two presentations at the conference about the importance of family support and I am sure that all FDS staff who attended found the conference beneficial. In July we will be holding our annual Remembrance Ceremonies in several different states of Australia. It is important for us to remember the tragedy of lives lost to substance use and to continue to push for change to policy to reduce the death rate and make people safer. Details of our ceremonies are included in this edition of Insight and you are welcome to attend any of our ceremonies. Our other activities are getting busy again with several upcoming volunteer training sessions and Stepping Stones courses running in various locations around Australia. Busy times ahead … Tony Trimingham, OAM I