Our main objectives are to:
- promote improved health and wellbeing by reducing harms related to injecting drug use
- document the trajectories of injecting drug use and key intervention points to reduce harms
- develop innovative studies to improve our understanding of patterns of injecting drug use in the community
- develop, implement and evaluate new interventions to reduce injecting drug use-related harms
- reduce risky behaviours related to injecting drug use
- increase the capacity of health professionals, researchers, policymakers and the general community through education and training to achieve a reduction in harms related to injecting drug use in Australia and globally.
Burnet brings together experts from injecting drug and substance use-related areas such as blood-borne virus, epidemiology and treatment (particularly hepatitis C), overdose prevention, justice health and psychiatric health.
Our current research approach is focused on:
- generating new evidence about ways to improve the health and social burden of injecting drug use in Australia and developing tools for translating research into policy and practice
- continuing to follow a cohort of people who inject drugs with or at risk of hepatitis C using a social network approach
- harm reduction, needle and syringe services, and overdose prevention and management in Myanmar
- outreach services to friends and family of people who inject drugs.
Together, here are some of the ways we've made a positive impact in reducing harm related to injecting drug use:
- established the Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use (CREIDU). It aims to increase our knowledge about injecting drug use, so we can identify ways to improve policy and practice to reduce the severity of health and social outcomes associated with injecting drug use
- continue to support our ongoing study – SuperMIX, Australia’s largest and longest-running cohort study of people who inject drugs. Since 2008, SuperMIX has focused on participants’ drug use, including periods of cessation and relapse, to inform the design of new services and interventions
- surveyed over 16,000 young people aged between 15 and 29 about sexual behaviours, alcohol and other drug use, pornography use, social media and mental health. We’ve learnt a great deal about the types and prevalence of risk behaviours among young people from these surveys and can monitor changes in these over time.
participants in SuperMIX, Australia’s largest and longest-running cohort study of people who inject drugs.
young people aged between 15 and 29 years we have surveyed about sexual behaviours, alcohol and other drug use, pornography use, social media and mental health.
is the number of people recently released from incarceration with a history of injecting drug use who are participating in Burnet’s PATH Cohort Study. Researchers are following the trajectories of participants for two years after their release from prison, exploring a range of outcomes relating to health, welfare and involvement with the justice system.
of Footscray's needle and syringe program (NSP) service users said heroin was the last drug they injected. This is data collected from the first one-week snapshot in February 2020 as part of Burnet’s NSP Snapshot Study. The aim of this research is to support NSPs in metropolitan Melbourne to improve their understanding of variations in client characteristics and service provision with a view to improving service delivery.
Working Groups
Burnet is an Australian-based medical research and public health institute and international non-government organisation that is working towards a more equitable world through better health.