Dr. Bruce Wallace and Substance Drug Checking Project win HSD Collaborative Research Excellence Award

Dr. Bruce Wallace accepted the new award, Collaborative Research Excellence, from the Faculty of Human and Social Development, on behalf of Substance Drug Checking and their collaborators including Solid Outreach, Island Health Authority, BC Ministry of Mental Health & Addictions and Vancouver Island University.

Wallace and Hore started collaborating in 2018 to develop a ‘drug checking’ project as a response to the toxic drug overdose public health crisis in BC. The project continues as a highly successful and outstanding example of how our university can engage researchers and students in innovative solutions responding to our most pressing societal issues and have immediate positive impacts in the world, in collaboration with numerous internal and external partners.

Substance provides meaningful experiential learning opportunities to HSD students in Social Work, Public Health, Dimensions of Health and Nursing as well as students in Chemistry and Computer Science. Last year the team of students and staff conducted approximately 10,000 drug checks along with local and regional public health monitoring data. Their goal is to continue to seek ways to overcome the implementation barriers and expand the scale and reach of drug checking to have meaningful impact here and globally.

For more details, please read: Meet the 2024 HSD Research Excellence Award winners