Welcoming Dr Goodman Sibeko and Hala Najm to our staff team

We are delighted to welcome two new members of staff to the ISSUP team, Dr Goodman Sibeko and Hala Najm. Their expertise and experience promise to enrich ISSUP's mission of promoting evidence-based practices in substance use prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery support.

Dr Goodman Sibeko is a Medical Doctor with specialist Psychiatric training. In his role as Scientific Advisor, he brings a wealth of experience in healthcare and policy development. With a focus on ensuring practitioner engagement and client-centred care, Dr Sibeko emphasises the importance of collaboration in shaping effective substance use interventions. His commitment to fostering a supportive learning environment aligns perfectly with ISSUP's goals of providing valuable resources to its members and followers.

"I'm here to listen to the ISSUP community," says Dr Sibeko. "I’m excited to engage with the ISSUP community as we explore the opportunities posed by our widening understanding of resources human and otherwise, for service provision for substance use disorders, and to collaboratively expand our pool of shared knowledge and practice."

Joining him is Hala Najm, the new Scientific Support Coordinator. With over a decade of experience in health promotion and substance use prevention, Hala, who was a Humphrey Fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University, brings a diverse skill set to ISSUP. Her background in pharmacy and public health, coupled with her international experience, positions her as a valuable asset in ensuring the quality and integrity of ISSUP's contributions.

"I'm thrilled to join ISSUP and contribute to its global efforts," says Hala. "I look forward to connecting with the global drug demand reduction workforce!"

Dr Sibeko and Hala's expertise will be instrumental in advancing the ISSUP Scientific Support Team (SST) mission of providing high-quality, ethical, and evidence-based resources to the drug demand reduction community. The focus of the SST is to ensure that what ISSUP offers to the drug demand reduction community and particularly to its members is evidence-based, ethical and of high quality and can be identified as scientifically sound and rigorous.

We extend our warmest welcome to Dr Sibeko and Hala and wish them all the best in their new roles. Their skills and dedication will undoubtedly contribute to the continued success of ISSUP in advancing scientific knowledge and best practices in substance use prevention and treatment. We look forward to their contributions to ISSUP's work.

In their own words...

Dr Goodman Sibeko

I’m excited to join the dynamic ISSUP team in my consultant role as Scientific Advisor. Practitioners are the bedrock of the service user experience and system strength, and our engagement can be so determinant of the extent to which individuals become aware of their need for care, and the level of motivation and commitment they sustain as they seek and access care and achieve recovery. Policymakers (who thankfully tend to be historical practitioners themselves) cannot generate policy in the absence of care provision and feedback from practitioners. The extent to which practitioners appreciate our own collaborator role in care and policy development can mean the difference between paternalism and true client-centred care. 

Access to best practice information and a community of peers and specialist expertise plays an important role in ensuring that we remain inspired to access and share knowledge and experience. ISSUP has created fertile ground for the nurturing of spaces to achieve just this and have successfully galvanised communities of practitioners to become excited about learning opportunities shared both on the ISSUP platform and on those of our broader network partners. 

Ours is now to continue to nurture this warm space and ensure its growth, evolution and continued relevance as a safe and trusted space for self-development and networking. As incoming Scientific Advisor, my job is arguably quite easy, as I’m really here to listen to the ISSUP community. I’m here to take inspiration from the incredible guidance provided by Jeff before me and continue to facilitate ISSUP’s responsiveness to the needs and characteristics of our growing and evolving community. Once upon a time it was thought that only medical professionals were well placed to provide care for substance use disorders, but we know now, partly (and thankfully) in response to the limited resources available to provide this service, that there is not only an evidence-based need to be more inclusive of additional groups of practitioners, but also a natural one, inclusive of non-specialist workers and healers accessed by traditional communities. I’m excited to engage with the ISSUP community as we explore the opportunities posed by our widening understanding of resources human and otherwise, for service provision for substance use disorders, and to collaboratively expand our pool of shared knowledge and practice. Let’s get creative, ok?

Hala Najm

My name is Hala Najm, I’m from Lebanon, and I'm thrilled to join ISSUP as a Scientific Support Coordinator! With over 10 years of experience in health promotion and substance use prevention, I've previously worked at the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority and Mentor Arabia, where I developed a toolkit of evidence-based interventions for substance use prevention, treatment, recovery, harm reduction, and criminal justice and programs design, management, and implementation, respectively. My background is in Pharmacy, I hold a master's in public health, and I was a Humphrey Fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University. Outside of work, I enjoy hiking, camping, and exploring the globe, and I'm looking forward to connecting with the global DDR workforce!