Dr John Howard
Senior Lecturer
Dr John Howard joined NDARC in 2008 as a Senior Lecturer and works with the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre (NCPIC), as well as NDARC’s international research activities and those with a focus on young people.
From 2001 to 2007 he was Director – Clinical Services, Training and Research, Ted Noffs Foundation, and before that, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Director, Social Health Programs, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Adolescent Psychiatry, Prince of Wales Hospital, and has worked as a high school teacher, school counsellor, and in residential and community programs for young offenders.
Since 1992 he has consulted to WHO, UNICEF, UNODC and other agencies on street youth/children in developing countries and the health of male adolescents at WHO/HQ in Geneva and field-work in India, the Philippines, South Africa and Egypt; to UNESCAP, with field-work in Lao PDR, Viet Nam, China and Thailand on capacity-building for the community treatment of young drug users; WHO/WPRO on substance use among adolescents in the Western Pacific Region; with the Asian Harm Reduction Association and Access Quality International on increasing access to and participation in youth friendly harm reduction in Nepal, China and Thailand; and with Georgetown University on a NIDA grant on prevalence and patterns of substance use in Egypt.
His major clinical, teaching and research areas are: adolescent substance use, ‘street youth’, comorbidity, depression and suicide in young people, working with marginalised youth, adolescent psychotherapy, same-sex attracted youth, HIV infection in adolescents, resilience, youth-friendly harm reduction and treatment capacity-building.
John’s work with NCPIC focuses on developing a training package on Cannabis and Young People for those who work with youth in a variety of roles and providing training across metropolitan, regional, rural and remote Australia. He also produced a suite of resources - Clear Youth Vision - a quitting guide for young people with multiple and complex needs, an accompanying guide for group use of this resource, and an interactive web-based version. He also works on projects for Indigenous youth and pharmacists.
