Drug and Alcohol Health Integration Team
The Drug and Alcohol Health Integration Team (HIT) is a team of public health experts, academics, doctors and other professionals, working together to reduce the harm that can be caused by alcohol and substance use.
Excessive alcohol use is the third leading risk factor for morbidity in Western Europe. Liver disease is the fifth most common cause of death in the UK and is on the increase, primarily caused by excessive drinking and hepatitis C (HCV). Over 85 per cent of HCV in the UK is due to injecting drug use, and opiate-related deaths are a major contributor to premature mortality.
Latest news and events
16 December 2021
Opioid agonist treatment, commonly methadone or buprenorphine, for people dependent on heroin or other opioid drugs has an important role to play in suicide prevention, according to University of Bristol-led research published in The Lancet Psychiatry.Peo...
14 October 2021
Bristol Health Partners held its annual Conference on Tuesday 12 October 2021. Like last year, the event was held online due to the ongoing pandemic, with more than 110 academics, clinicians, commissioners and others from organisations across Bristol, Sou...
30 September 2021
The use of legal drugs (tobacco and alcohol) may lead to the use of cannabis, a new study led by the University of Bristol and published in the journal Addiction has found. The study also found evidence that cannabis use may lead to smoking initiation, an...
30 July 2021
Bristol Health Partners’ Drug and Alcohol Health Integration Team (HIT) brought together people from across the UK who share an interest in improving opioid substitution treatment (OST) for a workshop on 7 July. Among the attendees were people with liv...
23 July 2021
The Drug and Alcohol HIT network met virtually on 30 June 2021. Chair Dr Julian Walker, Director of Research & Development at Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, welcomed speakers with lived experience, alongside researchers and pra...
20 July 2021
Our Drug and Alcohol HIT co-directors Leonie Roberts, Kyla Thomas, Tim Williams and Jo Kesten look back at 2020-21Drug and alcohol services adapted and evolved in response to COVID-19. Bristol Drugs Project’s (BDP) impact report summarises how they supp...
2 March 2021
Opioid agonist treatment could substantially reduce drug related deaths if used more widely New evidence that opioid agonists such as methadone and buprenorphine could substantially reduce drug related deaths if more widely used in the community and pris...
3 December 2020
A new strategy is being developed to support people with drug and alcohol dependency in Bristol, and limit the impact of addiction on lives and communities across the city. A draft strategy is now ready, which Bristol City Council is asking for feedba...
20 October 2020
Bristol Health Partners held its annual Health Integration Team (HIT) Conference as an entirely virtual event this year because of the pandemic. The event, “COVID-19 Call to Action: What else can we achieve in health and social care?”, took place b...
25 August 2020
Megan completed an internship with Bristol Health Partners in 2018 and has since grown her interest in health inequalities research. She now works as a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University looking at mental health and hospital/prescription data...
25 May 2020
Directors of the Drug and Alcohol Health Integration Team (HIT) Dr Kyla Thomas, Thara Raj and Dr Tim Williams reflect on the HIT’s work in the past year. During the last year, HIT members have been working together to develop evidence-based services to...
16 March 2020
On Wednesday, 4 March 2020, the Drug and Alcohol Health Integration Team (HIT) brought together service providers, service users, researchers and commissioners to discuss how to address prescription opioid dependence in Bristol, North Somerset and South G...
