The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) and Carleton University have formalized their long-standing partnership that dates back to December 2001. The most recent Memorandum of Agreement was signed in September 2010 and continues for three years. It enhances the respective roles and effectiveness of the two organizations, bringing together their unique strengths to bridge academic excellence and the addictions field.
Context
Substance abuse and addictions have a negative impact on the health, social and economic well-being of Canadians. Effective partnerships between educational institutions and non-governmental organizations can promote leading-edge research, policies and programs that reduce harms associated with alcohol and other drugs.
CCSA and Carleton University have pledged to work together in a spirit of cooperation, learning and support to:
- Implement practical means to bring the policy and research fields and university researchers closer together.
- Champion intersectoral and interfaculty partnerships to maximize efforts and resources through cooperation with research in addictions, including in-kind support for relevant research proposals and sharing of knowledge and expertise.
- Promote academic research and excellence in the field of addictions through the sharing of data, information, networks and resources.
- Provide a participatory form that fosters innovation and creativity among faculty members, researchers and students in the field of addictions.
- Jointly create opportunities to provide a long-term, sustainable continuity of academic interest in the field of addictions and the practical application of learned social science skills through cooperative education and practical placements.
Highlights of Activities to Date
- Joint sponsorship of a 2008 moderated panel discussion on harm reduction that examined why some forms of harm reduction are widely accepted as ‘good’ public policy while others are not.
- Cross-appointment of a faculty member of Carleton University’s Department of Psychology to a part-time position at CCSA in 2007.
- In partnership with CCSA, the Carleton University Data Centre provides researchers, research organizations and academics with access to the Canadian Addiction Survey microdata files.
- CCSA staff members have contributed to graduate and undergraduate courses on addictions in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology through activities such as guest lectures and the judging of research projects.
- Joint sponsorship of a 2004 open forum on the Neuroscience of Substance Dependence and Addiction-related research in Canada and CIHR-INMHA.
- Students in research placements at CCSA produced perspective papers on:
- Screening for risky cannabis use
- Knowledge transfer techniques in the addictions field
- Establishment of a Canadian substance abuse journal
- Decriminalization of marijuana
- Canada’s response to methamphetamine use
- Drug courts in Canada and the U.S.
- Gender differences among adult children of alcoholics
- Community response models in the addictions field
- Students were also involved in
- CCSA, Carleton University and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction) co-sponsored the 2001 Addictions Researchers Workshop. The subsequent report prompted the 2003 Forum on Alcohol and Illicit Drugs Research in Canada.
- Students can access the CCSA library collection.
- Faculty members sit on the Advisory Committee for the Canadian Addiction Survey and on the Scientific Advisory Committee; one faculty member is a research associate with CCSA.