Background

Ash completed a Bachelor of Nursing in 2013 and went on to complete her Master’s in Public Health at the University of Melbourne in 2016 with a research thesis titled “Availability, use and impacts of alcohol and other drugs in the City of Melbourne”.

Ash has been a PhD student with the Public Health discipline since 2017. She is currently part of the Behaviours and Health Risks working group and is completing her PhD under the supervision of Professor Mark Stoové. As part of her PhD, Ash is working on the Prison and Transition to Health (PATH) study. Her work focuses on the health service utilisation of people in prison with histories of injecting drug use.

Ash is also employed as a Research Assistant at the Burnet Institute working with participant recruitment and follow-up. She has a background in Adult Acute Psychiatric Nursing, and was previously employed as a Pharmacotherapy Project Officer, working to improve service accessibility for people with opioid dependence in metropolitan Melbourne.

Qualifications

2016: Master of Public Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

2013: Bachelor of Nursing, Australian Catholic University, Ballarat, Australia

Projects (4)

Current (3)

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  Breaking the cycle: supporting people with drug use histories to avoid reincarceration

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  IDRS: Illicit Drug Reporting System

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  SuperMIX: The Melbourne Injecting Drug User Cohort Study

Past (1)

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  PATH Cohort Study

Publications (12)

2022 (5)

• High rates of resumption of injecting drug use following release from prison among men who injected drugs before imprisonment.
  Curtis M, Winter RJ, Dietze P, Wilkinson AL, Cossar RD, Stewart AC, Agius PA, Butler T, Aitken C, Kirwan A, Walker S, Stoové M
  Addiction. 2022 Jun; Epub ahead of print
• Criminal Justice Involvement after Release from Prison following Exposure to Community Mental Health Services among People Who Use Illicit Drugs and Have Mental Illness: a Systematic Review.
  Stewart AC, Cossar RD, Quinn B, Dietze P, Romero L, Wilkinson AL, Stoové M
  J Urban Health. 2022 May; 99:635-654
• Emergency department presentations in the first weeks following release from prison among men with a history of injecting drug use in Victoria, Australia: A prospective cohort study.
  Cossar RD, Stewart AC, Wilkinson AL, Dietze P, Ogloff JRP, Aitken C, Butler T, Kinner SA, Curtis M, Walker S, Kirwan A, Stoové M
  Int J Drug Policy. 2022 Mar; 101:103532
• COVID-19 vaccine acceptability among people in Australia who inject drugs: Implications for vaccine rollout.
  Dietze PM, Hall C, Price O, Stewart AC, Crawford S, Peacock A, Maher L
  Drug Alcohol Rev. 2022 Feb; 41(2):484-487
• Psychiatric well-being among men leaving prison reporting a history of injecting drug use: A longitudinal analysis.
  Stewart AC, Cossar R, Wilkinson AL, Scott N, Dietze P, Quinn B, Kinner SA, Aitken C, Walker S, Curtis M, Butler T, Ogloff JRP, Stoové M
  Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2022 Jan; 56(8):1034-1043

2021 (5)

• Strategies to maximise study retention and limit attrition bias in a prospective cohort study of men reporting a history of injecting drug use released from prison: the prison and transition health study.
  Stewart AC, Cossar R, Walker S, Wilkinson AL, Quinn B, Dietze P, Winter R, Kirwan A, Curtis M, Ogloff JRP, Kinner S, Aitken C, Butler T, Woods E, Stoové M
  BMC Med Res Methodol. 2021 Sep; 21(1):185
• The Prison and Transition Health (PATH) cohort study: Prevalence of health, social, and crime characteristics after release from prison for men reporting a history of injecting drug use in Victoria, Australia.
  Stewart AC, Cossar RD, Wilkinson AL, Quinn B, Dietze P, Walker S, Butler T, Curtis M, Aitken C, Kirwan A, Winter R, Ogloff J, Kinner S, Stoové M
  Drug Alcohol Depend. 2021 Aug; 227:108970
• Ketamine Use Among People Who Regularly Use Ecstasy and Other Illicit Stimulants in Australia: Trends and Characteristics of Use, 2009-2019.
  Stewart AC, Peacock A, Djordjevic F, Cossar R, Salom C, Lenton S, Dietze P
  J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2021 Mar; 82(2):188-196
• Integrating episodes of imprisonment and the cascade of care for opioid use disorder.
  Cossar R, Stewart A, Winter R, Curtis M, Dietze P, Ogloff JRP, Stoové M
  Addiction. 2021 Feb; 116(2):427-428
• Initiation of medications for opioid use disorder shortly before release from prison to promote treatment retention: Strong evidence but compromised policy.
  Curtis M, Larney S, Higgs P, Cossar RD, Winter RJ, Stewart AC, Stoové M
  J Addict Med. 2021 Jan; 15(6):525-526

2020 (1)

• The response to COVID-19 in prisons must consider the broader mental health impacts for people in prison.
  Stewart A, Cossar R, Stoové M
  Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2020 Jun; 54(12):1227-1228

2018 (1)

• Lifetime prevalence and correlates of self-harm and suicide attempts among male prisoners with histories of injecting drug use.
  Stewart AC, Cossar R, Dietze P, Armstrong G, Curtis M, Kinner SA, Ogloff JRP, Kirwan A, Stoové M
  Health Justice. 2018 Oct; 6(1):19

News Articles (1)

2022 (1)

• Burnet congratulates Jim and Margaret Beever Fellow and travel award recipients