Norfolk Ketamine and Synthetic Opioids Conference - Tuesday 24 March 2026

Giorgia Tevola - Opiate, Non-Dependent & Young Adult Team Leader – Change Grow Live

Giorgia has worked in substance use for over six years in various roles and is currently a team leader at Change Grow Live (CGL) based in Norwich. Two of the teams she manages are the non-dependent team and young adult team which case hold most of the service users CGL see for Ketamine use.

Giorgia was the Young Adult Recovery Coordinator during the period that CGL Norfolk started seeing an increase in Ketamine service users requiring support back in 2022; so during that time and since, she has worked within a team which has developed the local Ketamine pathway offering bespoke psychosocial interventions and continuation of development to how CGL can effectively support those using Ketamine. 

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Ruth Doherty - Consultant Urological Surgeon, Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital 

Ruth is a Consultant Urological Surgeon with over two decades of clinical experience and specialist expertise in female, functional, reconstructive, neurological and urodynamic urology. She has been a substantive Consultant since 2015 and has a particular clinical and academic interest in ketamine-associated urinary tract syndrome.

Ruth is closely involved in the delivery of the specialist ketamine bladder service at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) and has contributed to multiple abstracts and national conferences, sharing outcomes and experience from this dedicated clinic. She regularly lecture on ketamine bladder syndrome at teaching events and meetings across the UK.

Ruth is an elected executive member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) Female and Reconstructive Urology Committee and has contributed to several national consensus documents, including guidance on the management of ketamine bladder syndrome. She is also the author of the BAUS patient information leaflet for patients with ketamine bladder syndrome.

Alongside Ruth's clinical work, she holds an Honorary Senior Lecturer post at the University of East Anglia and am actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate education. My academic interests include multicentre research, systematic reviews, simulation-based training, and the development of non-technical skills.

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Professor Robert Ralphs – Professor of Criminology & Social Policy, Deputy Director of Drugs, Policy & Social Change (DPSC) - Manchester Metropolitan University

Professor Rob Ralphs is Deputy Director of the Drugs, Policy and Social Change (DPSC) research centre at Manchester Metropolitan University. With over 28 years of experience in applied substance use research, Rob works extensively with service providers and commissioners to improve treatment design and delivery, ensuring strong service user engagement. He sits on several national and regional expert panels, including the Greater Manchester Drug Alert Panel, the ACMD sub-committee on Novel Benzodiazepines and New Psychoactive Substances, and the UK Drug Market Monitoring Network.

Rob leads GMTRENDS (Greater Manchester Testing and Research on Emergent and New DrugS), the UK’s only annual interdisciplinary project tracking emerging drug trends in Greater Manchester. His recent research has focused on ketamine use among young people, informing harm reduction strategies and shaping treatment pathways across the Northwest. This has included exploring motivations for use, identifying good practice, and highlighting remaining challenges and barriers to support.

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SIO Douglas Blackwood – Humberside Police

Doug Blackwood has over two decades of policing experience, beginning his career in 2001 with the City of London Police. He quickly moved into detective work, taking on both general and specialist roles within CID. His career has included leading complex investigations and working with international law enforcement partners. He has responded to major incidents, including the July 2005 London bombings, and has seen first-hand the strength of community resilience in the face of adversity. Since 2014, he has served as a trained police negotiator, supporting individuals in crisis and deploying internationally to share expertise and learn from other cultures.

In 2018, Doug transferred to Humberside Police, where he has held leadership roles in Intelligence, Investigations, and Neighbourhood Policing. As an accredited Senior Investigating Officer, he leads investigations into serious and major crimes. He holds a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge and is passionate about innovation, collaboration, and early intervention in policing.

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Dr Caroline Copeland – Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology & Toxicology, Director of the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality - King’s College London

Dr Caroline Copeland leads a research group at King’s College London in the field of drug-related mortality and harm reduction. As Director of the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality (NPSUM), she has led extensive analyses of coroner-reported drug deaths to identify emerging trends and inform public health responses. Dr Copeland’s research integrates toxicology, epidemiology, and public policy, with a goal of understanding the pharmacological and societal drivers of drug-related mortality. 

She has published over 35 peer-reviewed papers since 2020, advancing knowledge on the role of prescription medications, novel psychoactive substances, and drug–drug interactions in overdose deaths. Alongside her research, she serves on the UK’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and is an expert consultant on novel psychoactive substances for the European Union Drug Agency, providing crucial evidence to shape national and international strategies on drug harm prevention.

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Marita Isaac – Advanced Nurse Practitioner (Substance Misuse) – Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital

Marita is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in substance misuse with over 20 years’ experience working across both community and hospital settings. She is passionate about addressing health inequalities and improving access to treatment for individuals who use drugs and or alcohol. She played a key role in establishing the Norfolk and Norwich ketamine bladder clinic pathway and has extensive clinical experience supporting individuals affected by illicit ketamine use.

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Jamie Barnes – Peer Research Coordinator, Service User & Lived Experience Engagement – Together UK

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Neave Watson – Change Grow Live

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Adam Jones - Health Improvement & Service Development Manager (Drugs & Alcohol), Public Health Team - Hull City Council

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Daniel Fisher – UNITY (The Matthew Project)

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Charlie Dunford – Consultant Urologist – Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital

Charlie Dunford is a Consultant Urologist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital with a specialist interest in Adolescent, Functional, Neuro-Urological and Reconstructive Urology.  Charlie trained at Imperial College, London and completed specialist training in North London, including a fellowship at The Institute of Urology, Westmoreland Street UCLH.  It was during her fellowship that Charlie first came across patients with ketamine bladder requiring reconstruction, working for Dan Wood and Jeremy Ockrim, two mentors with the largest series of ketamine bladder patients in the UK.  

On arriving in Norfolk to take up her consultant post in 2020, there was a post COVID pandemic explosion of cases which prompted the development of our Norwich Ketamine Bladder service specific to our population’s needs, utilising the expertise within our hospital and community MDT.  The learning curve has been steep in the last few years which has placed the team in the national conversation around ketamine bladder, presenting NNUH data at UK and International Conferences and developing the British Association of Urological Surgeons Consensus Document on managing Ketamine Bladder, penned by Ruth Doherty, Consultant Urologist NNUH. 

Charlie is passionate about Adolescent Urology and transitioning from Paediatric to Adult care as seamlessly as possible to maintain engagement with health care services and these skills have been invaluable in supporting the younger ketamine patient group particularly. Charlie counts herself extremely lucky to work alongside such a dedicated team of healthcare professionals including her senior Consultant colleague Ruth Doherty, NNUH substance misuse nurses Marita Isaac and Lorraine Tweedy, and the community substance misuse team from CGL Norfolk. 

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Angela Freeman – Public Health Officer (Adult Drug & Alcohol Commissioning Team) – Norfolk County Council

Angela has worked at Norfolk County Council in variety of roles across multiple departments for the past 20 years and joined the Public Health team in 2013. She has recently completed a BSc degree in Public Health, and now works in the Adult Drug & Alcohol Commissioning Team focussing on the Ketamine portfolio, including undertaking academic research, presenting to local and national forums, and co-chairing the Ketamine Task & Finish Group within NDAP, which is a partnership collaboration across policing, probation, acute healthcare (hospitals and ambulance service), treatment providers and public health, developing integrated treatment pathways and education/ workforce training, and commissioning a public facing media awareness campaign utilising the voice of lived experience.

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Rachael Cooper – Norfolk Drug & Alcohol Partnership (NDAP) Manager - Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner for Norfolk

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Andrew Hepburn – CGL Norfolk

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SpinTop Media – Part of the Media Learning Company - City College Norwich 

The Media Learning Company course at City College Norwich is a unique and trailblazing model of education. Working as a production company, rather than traditional classes, the students work five days per week, plus additional hours, mentored by a local award-winning company, Eye Film. They create real media products for real clients to real deadlines throughout the year. These products can include factual, live events media production, campaigns, animation, graphics and photography. This is a highly challenging course in which students gain a Level 4 Professional Diploma.  

At the start of the year the students brand their production company; developing their name, logo, website, photography, video & socials within the first three weeks. This year the students named themselves Spin Top Media and have since created micro documentaries, turned around fast paced content for Wild Paths music festival & captured City College graduation from Norwich Cathedral.  

Their biggest challenge and project yet, has been to create campaign contents to raise awareness of the issues surrounding ketamine usage. It has been a privilege to work with the stakeholder partnership and film contributors who have generously given their time and shared their stories both as research and on camera.

To be trusted to create contents that has the potential to impact the communities in which we live is an unforgettable and deeply special experience for both staff and students. The students have researched, pitched, budgeted, scripted, shot, photographed, designed and edited the campaign and we are very proud to see that launched today.