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University of Bedfordshire
Park Square
Luton
Bedfordshire
UK, LU1 3JU
Following her PhD in Virology at the Medical Research Council’s Virology Unit in Glasgow, Sarah worked for five years for the NHS in Scotland as an epidemiologist specialising in infections associated with injecting drug use. One of the projects that she led identified high risk injecting behaviour amongst drug users who lived in hostels for the homeless prompting Greater Glasgow Health Board to introduce a needle exchange service in Glasgow hostels.
She was also a member of a multidisciplinary outbreak team including specialists from the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, to investigate an outbreak of unexplained severe illness (87% mortality) in IDUs in Scotland, England and Ireland.
Laboratory investigations suggested that Clostridium novyii was the causative agent and a case-control study found that injecting drugs into muscle rather than a vein was a risk factor. As a result of this study, health promotion literature now advises injecting drug users not to inject into muscle or skin.
Sarah started work at the Tilda Goldberg Centre in April 2010 and identified substance misuse and ageing as an issue which is significantly under-researched but is likely to become of increasing importance and prominence in the future. She has recently completed a study exploring the experiences of older people with alcohol problems and investigating what strategies and approaches are likely to be most successful in treating them. The findings were the subject of an article in the Daily Telegraph.
Sarah has also recently given presentations on alcohol misuse amongst older people at the Northern Ireland Parliament and the Society for Study of Addiction Annual Conference. She has been invited to present her work at the 2012 New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Conference and has written an article on alcohol and ageing for the British Society of Gerontology which was published in the Society’s newsletter in July.
Sarah is organising a one day conference on alcohol and ageing at King’s College London in July 2012, is in the process of writing a number of articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals and is developing a number of grant proposals. She will shortly be starting a project with colleagues at the Brunel Institute of Ageing Studies to examine alcohol-related elder abuse.
Sarah also contributes to the work of the Centre which aims to widen the evidence base in relation to substance misuse and social work. She has interviewed staff and managers of a service which plays a central role in responding to the needs of children affected by parental substance misuse in the London Borough of Islington to identify the core components, aims, outcomes and theories underpinning the service and prepared a report describing the findings. Sarah has worked with Professor Forrester to prepare reports for the Welsh Assembly Government on the potential benefits of using Social Behaviour Network Therapy and Case Management for substance misuse in social work practice and co-authored a book chapter on substance misuse in social work practice with Dr Galvani.
