Family Drug Support 2024 Annual Report

24 VIC – Melbourne – 23 February This year, FDS was very proud to work in partnership with the Keep Our City Alive campaign to bring IFDSD to Parliament House. We staged a media event on parliament steps with 24 pairs of shoes and 24 purple balloons to symbolise the 24 people who had lost their lives to overdose in Melbourne's CBD in the last 12 months. We had the Minister for Mental Health, Ingrid Stitt present via video link, MP Aiv Puglielli of the Victorian Greens and a diverse range of families, lived experience speakers and service providers speak. We would like to thank our sponsors, the Victorian Alcohol and Other Drug Association (VAADA) and the Victorian Greens for supporting the event. “I see the devastating impact of drug use every day in laneways near my home. Medical and health professionals are telling us the solution, so why aren’t we listening? If we want to move drug use off the streets and help people, an overdose prevention service is the way forward,” says Jill Mellon-Robertson, Keep Our City Alive spokesperson and CBD resident NSW – Sydney – 22 February The New South Wales Sydney IFDSD was held at the NSW Teachers Federation building in Surry Hills on 22 February 2024, attended by community members, representatives from various organisations and services and drug law reform advocates. We heard from our keynote speakers who shared in relation to this year's IFDSD theme “Supported Families – Stronger Communities”. Tony Trimingham OAM, Founder of Family Drug Support; Jen Ross-King, family member and Theresa Russell, family member all spoke movingly and inspiringly about their personal experiences. The tragic and unnecessary loss of young lives due to the criminalisation of drug use and lack of harm reduction services was highlighted in the stories told by Tony and Jen Ross-King. The difference that Family Drug Support, in particular Stepping Stones and peer support meetings, make to family members was passionately illustrated by Theresa. Nicole Snowden, Charles Sturt University & National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, spoke about her research and the Family Empowerment Program, which provides support from a mental health professional to people in rural areas who have a family member with a drug or alcohol problem. Emma Maiden is the General Manager of Advocacy and External Relations at Uniting and spoke about the Fair Treatment campaign which employs a number of full-time staff and is calling for increased access to treatment services and compassionate, health-based responses to drug use and dependency. Rev Bill Crews, the Exodus Foundation spoke about his long association with Family Drug Support, which includes FDS annual bereavement ceremonies held at the Bill Crews Foundation church. Chloe Span, Family Drug Support VIC CSM Chloe Span, Clinical Services Manager VIC Nicole Snowden Emma Maiden, Uniting Rev Bill Crews