SMART Research published internationally | SMART Recovery Australia

SMART Recovery Australia has established its own Research Advisory Committee, and the esteemed group has hit the ground running.

The SMART Recovery Australia (SRAU) Research Advisory Committee has been established to ensure that all prospective projects for SMART Recovery Australia are evidence based, and that the latest research in addiction and mutual aid is considered. The focus of the committee is therefore on building a recognised research base, as well as ongoing evaluation and development.

The Research Advisory Committee with some of the leading addiction and mental health researchers in the country. Professor Amanda Baker, SRAU Board Member, Co-Director, National Health and Medical Research Council’s Centre of Research Excellence in Mental Health and Substance Abuse (University of Newcastle), immediate past President of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol & other Drugs is the Chairperson.
The other members are:
– Professor Frank Deane, Director of the Illawarra Institute for Mental Health at the University of Wollongong, NSW.
– Professor Anthony Shakeshaft, Deputy Director, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales. Associate Professor of Addiction Studies and Services.
– David Best, Program Director Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Services.
– Associate Professor Jane Burns, Founder and CEO, Young and Well – Cooperative Research Centre and the former International Research Director, Inspire Foundation.
– Professor John Kelly, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Recovery Research Director and member of SMART Recovery Internal Advisory Council.
– Dr Peter Kelly, Lecturer in clinical psychology (with a research focus on evidence based treatment within mental health and substance abuse settings) at the University of Wollongong, NSW.

SMART Recovery Australia study features in international publication 

SMART Recovery Australia Research Advisory Committee members Professor Amanda Baker, Professor Peter Kelly and Professor Frank Deane have recently had their research paper, ‘Group Cohesion and Between Session Homework Activities Predict Self-Reported Cognitive–Behavioural Skill Use Amongst Participants of SMART Recovery Groups’, published in the esteemed substance abuse Journal, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

Highlights from the paper include:

• SMART Recovery groups are cognitive–behaviourally oriented mutual support groups for individuals with addictions.
  Participants attending SMART Recovery present with a complex clinical profile, including high rates of self reported co-occurring mental illness.
• Participants were more likely to report the use of cognitive restructuring than behavioural activation.
• Group cohesion was positively correlated with the use of both cognitive and behavioural skill utilisation by participants attending SMART Recovery.

Click here to read the research paper in full. 

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