Dr Ingrid van Beek is a public health and addiction medicine physician who has worked at the sharp end of harm reduction as the Director of the Kirketon Road Centre (1989 – 2017) in Sydney’s Kings Cross. She was also the founding Medical Director of the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (2000 – 2008), which was the first supervised injecting facility in the English-speaking world. Ingrid described its controversial beginnings in a book entitled: In the eye of the needle: diary of a Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (Allen & Unwin 2004).
Ingrid was conferred as a Doctor in Medicine in 2010 in recognition of her body of published scholarly work in the international field of Harm Reduction. She was also awarded membership of the Order of Australia in that same year for her contribution to improving the health of marginalised populations. Ingrid was honoured to receive the Paolo Pertica Award at the City Health International 2017 conference, for her humane and compassionate approach to the often complex problems of criminalised populations.
We are delighted that a number of high profile thought leaders from different aspects of urban health have accepted the invitation to be Patrons of City Health International.
The Patrons support the aims of the network and lend valuable advice and support in our efforts to promote its activities.
The Patrons support the aims of the network and lend valuable advice and support in our efforts to promote its activities.
