Dr James Morris is an alcohol, addiction and behaviour change specialist with expertise in public health, policy and research. James has 20 years public health and behaviour change experience, particulary in the context of alcohol public health interventions. He is an experienced trainer in behaviour change and alcohol brief interventions, having trained thousands of health and social care roles for the NHS, addictions and social care sectors.
James is a research fellow at Centre for Addiction Behaviours Research and recently worked for the Department of Health and Social Care on new national alcohol guidelines. He completed his PhD in 2020 exploring how beliefs about alcohol addiction and problems can influence change and continues to research framing and stigma processes amongst harmful drinkers – see his academic publications here or read more about this in a Guardian article he authored here. He is host of the Alcohol ‘Problem’ Podcast which explores the nature of alcohol problems with researchers and people with lived experience.
James’ passion for affecting change comes from his past experience of overcoming alcohol problems. In addition to the importance of effective policy action, he has a strong belief that individual level change can be engendered by person centred interventions that build a person’s confidence in their ability to do so. He has a particular interest in addiction theory and the importance of non-labelling language in shaping addiction and recovery beliefs and outcomes.
James has advised a range of international and national bodies on the development and delivery of alcohol interventions including the Department of Health and World Health Organization. He has also worked extensively as a consultant, supporting commissioning of effective treatment services and prevention strategies. In 2009 he co-founded the Alcohol Academy, a social enterprise to support and promote effective approaches to alcohol harm reduction.
James has spoken at wide range of alcohol and addiction events including for the Society for the Study of Addiction, the NHS and at international addiction conferences. He has been appeared on multiple news features. He is a member of the Addiction Theory Network and Chair of the New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group and also editor of Alcohol Policy UK and the IBA blog.
To get in touch, please see here.
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