Flinders University’s National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA) is hosting a national symposium to support workers in the methamphetamine care sector.

The national symposium, to be held at the Arts Centre Melbourne, features some of Australia’s leading methamphetamine experts, who will highlight and examine strategies to identify methamphetamine-related problems early on, how to respond effectively, and improved treatments and outcomes.

One of other key issues it will address is the sense of feeling overwhelmed being experienced by many workers on the ground, who are facing extreme symptoms in clients and patients who are heavy users of ice.

Professor Ann Roche, Director of NCETA, said it was a vital opportunity to ‘support the troops’, as hundreds of practitioners and workers come together to get behind the headlines, provide each other with support, and access the latest information on treatment options.

“It’s been a very difficult time for people providing services for those in the community who are using methamphetamine, particularly those clients and patients who are heavy users of ice,” said Professor Roche.

“The symposium will provide a much needed reality check, giving factual information about trends and usage of all of the variants of methamphetamine, including ice – but in some ways more importantly, it will also help to rally the troops.

“There has been so much negative media around ice, which is undoubtedly a serious problem, especially for heavy users, but the reality is that methamphetamine use is a complex picture, of which ice is only a part.

“We hope that by the end of the symposium, those workers who may be feeling overwhelmed and disheartened will go back to work feeling more informed and able to deal with some of the problems they are facing, but also reinvigorated and supported by being able to come together with so many of their colleagues in the sector.”