[AJHN] Farah Houdroge & Mark Stoové - Return on investment for a prison needle and syringe program

Community-based needle and syringe programs for people who inject drugs in Australia are cost-effective, but the potential benefits of prison programs have not been studied. Modelling by the Burnet Institute showed that for each dollar spent on introducing and scaling up needle and syringe programs in Australian prisons to achieve 50% coverage of people who inject drugs in prison by 2030, $2.60 in health care costs for people with hepatitis C virus and other injection-related infections could be saved.

Speakers:
Dr Farah Houdroge is an early career researcher with a multidisciplinary background in mathematics, engineering and modelling. After completing her PhD Monash University in 2018, she transitioned into public health and joined the Burnet’s Modelling and Biostatistics Group in 2020. Dr Houdroge has since developed a comprehensive hepatitis C model used in national and global applications, and has led research on cost-benefit analyses, including evaluations of prison-based needle and syringe programs in Australia and Canada.

Professor Mark Stoové is Head of Public Health at Burnet Institute where he also heads research groups in HIV Prevention and Justice Health. He has undertaken research on the epidemiology and prevention of blood borne viruses and sexually transmitted infections and the health and wellbeing of affected populations for over 20 years. His research focuses is on generating evidence for effective public health policy and practice.

Chair:
Dr Darcy Coulter
Research Fellow | Justice Health Group, Curtin enAble Institute and Curtin School of Population Health

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CHAPTERS
0:00 - Presentation (Prof Mark Stoové)
22:27 - Presentation (Dr Farah Houdroge)
35:52 - Q&A - Needle sharing behaviours - modelling vs reality
37:30 - Q&A - Return on investment
39:02 - Q&A - Observations on international needle exchange programs in prisons
43:09 - Q&A - How to encourage uptake of needle exchange programs in prisons
50:12 - Q&A - Reflection on the challenges research and policy
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