Raj Boyjoonauth
Vice Chair

A nurse by background he was until 2009 the Deputy Director/Lead Nurse of the largest UK-NHS based Addictions and Offender Care Directorate at CNWL NHS Foundation Trust, comprising of over 25 Addiction Treatment Centers including 4 London Prison Addiction Services. Prior to joining CNWL, Raj was the deputy director for mental health for Riverside Mental Health Service for 2 years.

Previous posts include being the deputy director for Brighton Mental Health Services. Raj has over 30 years' experience working for the NHS and was working at the Department of Health and involved in development of UK first 10 year drug strategy during the 1990s.

Raj was a member of the UK Government Drug Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) for 12 years and also a member of the Drug Advisory Services and was the senior commissioning manager for Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow Health Authority prior to the formation of PCTs in the 1990s.

He is the co-founder of ANSA, TINNS and INHRN where together with colleagues from North America, UK, Australia and Canada, the first global position paper on Nursing and Harm reduction was produced. Raj is also a founder member and board member advisor to the African Sub-Saharan Harm Reduction Network (SAHRN) and continues to be an assessor for British Council overseas Link Projects.

Having retired from his substantive NHS role Raj is now a UN management and training consultant currently working with UNODC/WHO in providing and accessing expertise training resources for their Training Program in Africa and South East Europe on substance misuse and sustaining livelihood programs. This post has taken him to provide services to Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Cape Verde, Serbia, Albania and currently with UNICEF to Tajikistan.

Raj passionately believes and advocates for substance misuse to be mainstreamed across the nursing spectrum, thereby developing every nurse's competencies and capabilities to enable and empower them to care for those with addiction problems as an integral part of their nursing role and responsibilities.