National Research Agenda
The Canadian capacity to make informed policy decisions and to develop and implement the appropriate prevention, promotion and treatment policies andprograms to address alcohol and drug issues depend in great part on our collective knowledge and understanding of the nature and scope of substance use and abuse issues in Canada. The need for research and timely information was raised by the Auditor General Report in December 2001 and by the reports of the House Special Committee on Non-Medical Use of Drugs. The Federal Government has recognized this need, and through the Canada's Renewed Drug Strategy, will invest $28.5 million, over 5 years, in knowledge generation and surveillance activities. This investment should enable us to enhance our capacity to address existing and emerging issues, trends in substance use and abuse, our capacity to evaluate progress on objectives and improve the existing research infrastructure. To provide a better national coordination of research activities and leverage investments and available resources, the CDS has called for the development of a National Research Agenda (NRA).
The NRA will also be a fundamental component of a proposed National Framework for Action on Substance Use and Abuse. The NRA will be a collective Agenda which will provide a focus for action and identify issues of common concern, research needs and research priorities of national interest. It will be a flexible, inclusive and comprehensive dynamic framework, including the needs and strategies of all the partners at all levels. It will outline key research objectives, priorities, and necessary initiatives to address both harm reduction, including prevention, and enforcement research and information needs, of common interest.
The NRA will be developed around four main pillars: 1) research, including investigator-driven-research, and mandated research) 2) monitoring, including surveys and monitoring activities, 3) evaluation, include program and intervention evaluation, 4) infrastructure, including network, central data base and knowledge transfer mechanisms.
The NRA will be developed through a series of consultations and in collaboration with all interested parties in research on alcohol and substance use and abuse in Canada. A national Thematic Workshop on Research on Substance Use and Abuse took place in Ottawa in March 29-30, 2005.
The objectives of the Workshop were to identify key elements of the National Research Agenda:
- issues of common concern;
- national research priorities;
- concrete research projects to address these issues and priorities; and
- mechanisms and approaches to enhance partnership and national coordination in research
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In the paper "Resilient Children of Parents Affected by a Dependency"  , the authors review studies which focus on current knowledge of resilience, with an emphasis on promotion and intervention programs and research activities. This paper presents valuable information for developing promotion and prevention strategies and treatment approaches to better address substance use and abuse issues, and identifies potential research avenues for the National Research Agenda.
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