2021-2022 CEO Report
Welcome
Welcome to our Annual Report for 2021 to 2022. This past year has been, once again, a test of everyone’s adaptability and resilience. Just when we thought we were going to be able to undertake long-planned face to face events and workshops, we were instead brought face to face with Omicron.
Nevertheless the year was, overall, one of re-connection, re-integration and re-starting.
The past year
I think it was with relief that our peer workforce were able to re-connect with community and our sector partners too. DanceWize was able to attend almost a full season’s roster of events; the Health Promotion Team and D.O.P.E were able to run workshops in person again and our Fuse Network of living experience workers in harm reduction were able to meet in person and share experiences and practice tips.
PAMS – our pharmacotherapy mediation and support telephone line – has never been busier. We have had increased support from the Department of Health for this program over the past year and yet it seems like no matter what fantastic workers we are able to bring on, the running crises in the opioid pharmacotherapy program in Victoria mean that we could run almost 24-7 and still not catch up.
Of 929 cases last year, 114 were requests to find both a prescriber and a pharmacist to dispense!
Along with this program work and service delivery we have been engaged heavily in several initiatives across the previous 12 to 18 months:
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System has shaken up not just the Mental Health System in Victoria but has had significant impacts on the Alcohol and Other Drug sector as well. The recommendations that most affected our work and community last year included the integration of Mental Health and AOD services so that people who try to access one or the other service are not turned away because they have a co-occurring issue.
" Most people who use drugs do not have mental health issues but we know that when we do try to access mental health help – especially in crisis – we are told that they cannot manage dependency or drug issues. "
Frankly, that should not happen and this change is supposed to help with that issue.
Whether it does is another thing, but we have been involved as much as we can with consultations and working with VAADA to try and ensure this will be carried through.
In order to better achieve these recommendations, the AOD and Harm Reduction sectors have been brought closer to the Mental Health system. Ensuring that we do not get overwhelmed in that system is a key piece of work.
Another key recommendation is that lived and living experience workforce is supported to lead on many reforms that most concern us. To that end we have recently been funded by the State Government to undertake a range of living experience workforce initiatives. Our Fuse Networks program is leading on this for harm reduction and we are really excited to be able to develop education and training for new living experience workers and to collaborate with our colleagues in Mental Health, Family Carer and AOD Recovery lived experience workforces. We are also developing a number of documents such as model job descriptions and scope of practice for our workforce. It is important that if this workforce is to expand into the mainstream that we are able to share our learnings over more than 30 years of peer work, so that our peers can be as safe as possible.
Another key part of the past year and more is the lead-up and preparation for the International Harm Reduction Conference in Melbourne this April. I really hope that many of you can make it.
Keep an eye out for opportunities including volunteering at the event.
In addition to this, we are planning to run an event during the conference to share what happened at the conference.
We will run this at our new community space in Brunswick and online!
And speaking of new community space, I can’t wait to welcome members and community to our new premises at 299 – 305 Victoria St, Brunswick.
The AGM was supposed to be our first event onsite, but we were not able to get the fire exits and smoke alarms ready in time. If we had moved in on the timeline we had hoped for we would already have held an official opening but we will be holding that later in February.
This new premises will offer us the opportunity to grow and offer community spaces, sector events and new services. We will be co-located with Vixen and we as a fellow peer organisation we couldn’t hope for a better partner in this new venture. Alongside this will be space for Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), who share our commitment to changing the way people who use drugs are understood in society.
We could not be more excited and it has been a very long time coming.
We first walked through the site in December 2021 and thanks to pandemics, supply shortages and any number of other road bumps, we are just now finishing up the renovation!
This will be a home we and other people who use drugs can be proud of.
I want to thank a few stakeholders specifically: the Board of HRVic, who supported the increased expenditure and capital costs because they know that our team and community deserve a home where we can spread our wings in; our funders at the Department of Health both in the Communicable Diseases Branch and in Harm Reduction / AOD – we simply could not have afforded the move otherwise - and Jess Holcombe, whose piece later in the report gives some more detail, but there is also no way we would have completed this move without her tenacity, patience and commitment to manage this massive project.
Thanks to all of you.
One of the reasons we need this space is that we are growing because our team are doing fantastic work! In July 2021 our payroll showed 15 staff and 868 hours worked over the fortnight, while our most recent payroll had 21 staff and 1073 hours worked.
I’d like to finish by thanking this fantastic group of people who make Harm Reduction Victoria tick – including those who have moved on, and of course our awesome community who we hope to see even more of this year!