St Vincent's Nurse Awarded Prestigious Churchill Fellowship

12 Oct 2023

In an Australian-first trial, St Vincent’s Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) staff of the Rankin Court treatment centre along with a dedicated research team, are investigating an innovative approach to the treatment of severe opioid dependence.

The feasibility study for which clinical nurse consultant Anna McVinish was the implementing NUM and nurse clinical lead, is looking to evaluate the implementation of this evidenced-based treatment modality in the Australian setting.

Known as supervised injectable opioid agonist treatment (siOT) this treatment has been available internationally for several decades and despite a well-established evidence base overseas, treatment settings and the ‘how’ of implementation ranges widely between sites. As such, beyond feasibility the study has established the first ever model for how this medication-assisted, nursing-led opioid agonist treatment can look in the Australian treatment landscape.

Recently, Anna has been awarded the Dr Dorothea Sandars Churchill Fellowship by the Winston Churchill Trust, to further this work. The Churchill Trust annually funds a select number of Australians from all walks of life to travel abroad to research a practice, technology or innovation not currently available or established Australia. Candidates are chosen on the premise that their research will contribute positive enhancements to Australian public life.

As a result of winning this Fellowship, Anna will visit established siOT sites in Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotland, Norway and Canada before consolidating all she has learned to share her learnings here locally, to inform best practice and ensure best possible client outcomes here at St Vincent’s.

The St Vincent’s siOT trial, known as FOPIT, involves implementing an innovative model of care to treat people with persistent opioid use disorder, with the overarching aim of reducing the risk of overdose and other social and physical harms often associated with injecting drug use.

The first site in Australia to open a supervised injectable opioid substitute treatment program, the St Vincent’s team facilitate the self-administration of an injectable alternative to illicit opioids, for participants whom conventional treatment modalities have not been effective in reducing their illicit opioid use.

The study has shown, that people who have tried conventional treatment programs without successfully reducing use or the associated harms, have successfully remained engaged with this program. For the duration of the study, FOpIT trial participants attend twice daily to the new built-for-purpose clinical space within Rankin Court, to self-inject their prescribed dosage of hydromorphone and receive support care and treatment services.

Already in its second year, anecdotally the trial has had some profoundly positive impacts on the participants’ lives, including; supported transition into permanent housing, participant re-engagement in employment and training opportunities, and the establishment of personal savings to support, not only the regular purchase of basic essentials such as food but restorative recreational opportunities such as bike riding, attending concerts, and sharing dinner at restaurants.

“I believe that people in Australia living with substance use disorders have been historically neglected by institutional healthcare, and we owe it to our communities, to public health and to the philosophies of harm reduction to get it done right”, Anna said.

Through her fellowship research, Anna is aiming to contribute to gold standard, clinical implementation guidelines and a knowledge of practice that will support safe, effective delivery of this treatment modality for the Australian population.

Anna hopes her findings will go a long way to ensuring this project is successfully integrated in drug treatment programs across Australia in the future - capturing community members who have traditionally fallen through the cracks.