About Joy

Joy Barlow is the Head of STRADA (Scottish Training – Drugs and Alcohol). Prior to developing STRADA, she was responsible for the design, development and management of residential and outreach drug treatment services for substance-dependent women and their children. She was awarded an MBE in 1998 for services to innovative drug prevention and treatment initiatives.

Joy has written extensively on the impact of parental substance misuse on children and families. She assisted Professor Marina Barnard at The Centre for Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow on the study ‘Children Growing Up in Drug Dependent Households’ (funded by the Chief Scientist’s Office). She has contributed to Professor Barnard’s recent book ‘Drug Addiction and the Family’. She was also involved in the development of ‘Getting Our Priorities Right’ – Good Practice Guidance on Working with Children and Families Affected by Substance Misuse, and served on its advisory group. Joy was a long-standing member of the ACMD Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (1990-2002) at the Home Office, and worked on the ‘Hidden Harm’ Inquiry Report produced by the Council’s Prevention Working Group. Joy is responsible for the development of protocols to support the implementation of ‘Getting Our Priorities Right’ for a number of Local Authorities in Scotland. STRADA is undertaking specific training and education on local protocol development. Joy has advised both the Scottish Government and other UK National bodies on the implementation of the ‘Hidden Harm’ report.

Joy’s work in the field of drugs and alcohol began in 1984 as Drugs Project Officer for the Scottish Episcopal Church. She was involved with services for those affected by HIV/AIDS throughout the 1980s, and was a Scottish Trustee of the National AIDS Trust. She subsequently worked as a consultant on families and carers issues for the NAT. Joy was a member of the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse from its inception in 1996 until 2009.

She has recently edited a book for Jessica Kingsley Publishing on ‘Substance Misuse – the implications of research, policy and practice’.

STRADA has been funded by the Scottish Government since 2001, to provide continuing professional development and academic programmes for those working with drug and alcohol misusers across Scotland. STRADA is a partnership between the University of Glasgow and DrugScope. It strives to achieve synergy between research, policy, practice and learning and development. STRADA is a founder member of I-ThETA (International Think-tank on Education and Training in Addictions), and Joy is its current chair.

Joy is particularly involved currently in the defining of recovery for workforce development, and is the prime mover in an Independent Enquiry in Scotland into maximising recovery from independent drug use in Scotland.