CASS newsletter updates for Economic Studies, August 2010

Professor Catia Montagna and Dr Dennis Petrie, along with colleagues from the Health Informatics Centre (HIC) and the Centre for Addiction Research & Education Scotland (CARES), have secured funding (£308,469) for the SUMIT project which aims to improve information collection and analysis of drug and alcohol services in Tayside. In Scotland, the national strategies for managing alcohol and drug problems are ambitious and expensive, requiring improved local performance in areas ranging from early intervention for alcohol problems in primary care to delivery of "Recovery" in illicit substance use. In the substance misuse field, the lack of valid information to support commissioning and service delivery has been identified as a key failing both locally and nationally. National deficits in available information have been shown to be impacting on treatment effectiveness while a dearth of basic local information on need, demand, spend and cost-effectiveness of services has been a driver for significant reform of national delivery and accountability processes in Scotland. The SUMIT project involves working with Tayside alcohol and drug service providers (the statutory and voluntary sector), Tayside Alcohol and Drug service commissioners (NHS Tayside & Local Authorities) and the Tayside Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) to help improve alcohol and drug service commissioning and delivery in Tayside.

Dundee graduate Daniel Kopasker (First Class Honours in Economics) was awarded an ESRC 1+3 Studentship to work under the supervision of Catia Montagna and Andrzej Kwiatkowski to study "The Effects of Economic Insecurity on Health and Wellbeing". Daniel will begin the MSc of the Scottish Graduate Programme in September.

Edinburgh graduate Aaron Platt (First Class Honours in Economics) was awarded an ESRC/MRC 1+3 Studentship for the project: "Linking routine health and social datasets to analyse the impact of parental drug use and methadone treatment on child development". Aaron will work under the supervision of: Colin McCowan (HIC), Dennis Petrie (Economic Studies) and Alex Baldacchino (CARES).

The following academics have spent visiting periods in Economic Studies this summer:

Prof Holger Görg of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy visited Economic Studies in June
Dr Kam Ki TANG of School of Economics, University of Queensland visited Economic Studies in July and August
Dr Richard Reid of the International Centre for Financial Regulation visited Economic Studies in July and August