Workplace Prevention in Practice (Intro): Getting to know Nadine Harker

Before exploring how workplaces can promote prevention and wellbeing, Professor Goodman Sibeko introduces Professor Nadine Harker, the voice and perspective behind much of this work. In this opening conversation, Professor Harker shares the path that led her into public health, what draws her to issues of mental health and substance use, and how her academic and professional experiences have shaped her approach.

The discussion offers context for her work and sets the stage for the conversations ahead on leadership, culture, and prevention in the workplace.

Featured Voices 

Host – A/Prof. Goodman Sibeko 

ISSUP Global Scientific Advisor.

Head of Addiction Psychiatry, University of Cape Town.

LinkedIn: goodmansibeko

Twitter/X: @profgsibeko

Guest – A/Prof. Nadine Harker

Specialist Scientist in the Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drug Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council. 

Time Stamps

A/Prof. Goodman Sibeko  (00:00)
A warm welcome to you and thank you for joining us for this ISSUP podcast. I'm Goodman Sibeko the ISSUP Global Scientific Advisor and your host. You can find me on LinkedIn and all the socials at the handle profgsibeko. You can find ISOP on LinkedIn, X and Blue Sky. Just type in ISSUP and you'll find us easily.
This series of podcasts focuses on the very important topic of workplace prevention. Over the next four episodes, we will discuss the concepts of creating a culture of prevention, strategies for early identification and support in the workplace, policy compliance and ethical practice around substance use management in the workplace, and building resilient and healthy work environments.

Dr. Nadine Harker is our guest and she's an associate professor and senior specialist scientist at the South African Medical Research Council. She's the Deputy Director of its substance use program. She holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town where she also teaches in the School of Public Health and in the Division of Addiction Psychiatry. As National Head of SACENDU she leads surveillance on drug trends in South Africa.

Her work focuses on substance use prevention, service quality monitoring, and policy development with extensive experience advising local and international bodies, including UNODC, WHO, and the African Union.

Nadine, welcome to this ISSUP podcast. It's a wonderful pleasure to have you here with us. Nadine's a good friend of mine, so it's really wonderful to see, because I can see her, and to talk to her. Nadine, just to get the ISSUP community in step with us, can you tell us who is Nadine Harker? What drives you?

A/Prof. Nadine Harker (01:37)
Good morning, Goodman Yes, I'm Nadine Harker and as you have introduced me, I'm based in South Africa with the South African Medical Research Council and more specifically the Mental Health Alcohol Substance Use and Tobacco Research Unit. And I've been here for a good 18 years, I think going on 19 right now. And as you've aptly described, those are my research fields.

I work and stand in epidemiology, but also prevention research that I'm quite passionate about. I'm a mom, I have a 15 year old daughter that's traveling right now. And as you can imagine, prevention when it comes to adolescents, I'm very tuned into adolescent work. But interestingly, this

This podcast that I've been invited to present on is also dear to my heart in a sense that before I moved into the research field many, many moons ago, probably years ago, I worked in employee wellness and I worked within the corporate sector. And it was through this experience that I actually learned that

There was a lot of substance use issues happening and 22 years ago we weren't really advanced in certain things as we are now. And I did my master's research looking into substance use in the workplace and how responsive organisations are to that. And that actually led into my PhD research which was testing and intervention. It was a randomised controlled trial, testing an evidence-based prevention program called Team Awareness within a work setting, and it was safety security settings that we looked at. 
So, yeah, I've furthered my research into that, specifically into women and employed women and over-the-counter medication and prescription medication misuse amongst this particular cohort and I am hoping to build on that still. So, yes, thank you. And that is a little bit about who I am and how I'm invited perhaps to speak on this particular topic.

A/Prof. Goodman Sibeko  (03:49)
That sounds fantastic, Nadine. And you've really contextualised why this matters to you. And you've also given us a sense of your journey that's led to you becoming an expert really in this field. Before I ask you a little bit more about it, could you maybe just for the sake of our audience, tell us a bit more about what the South African Medical Research Council does and what are some of the projects that your unit is specifically engaged with?

A/Prof. Nadine Harker (04:13)
So the South African Medical Research Council within South Africa is an organ of state or what we call a public entity. they are or the organisation is mandated by the South African government to do health research around the health of the nation, largely embedded in public health work. The SAMRC broadly as an institution has about 13 units that deal with public health issues ranging from mental health, substance use and tobacco researches is and alcohol, which is what our unit focuses on, to TB research, HIV prevention research, biomedical research, environmental health research. At the moment, what we are, and over the years, our unit has actually been around for close on 28 years.

And its range from epidemiological research studies to intervention research studies. We have researchers working on various aspects of mental health substance use and tobacco works with vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, people that use substances that have morbidities or multi-morbidity type of research would range from epidemiology to intervention research to implementation science and research collaboration with stakeholders, which include policymakers.

A/Prof. Goodman Sibeko  (05:42)
It really sounds to me like the SAMRC's focus is really an all of society focus and it's covering so many intersecting areas of concern and which feed into public health. And I think importantly, demonstrating some of the strategies that are used and the very important element of intersectoral collaboration and working with governments. So that sounds really promising. Having said that, if money was no object, you know,

If we had a bottomless pit of money to give you an Nadine what project would you want to drive or spearhead, either regionally or globally? What really matters to you?

A/Prof. Nadine Harker (06:15)
I think for all continent goodman that would definitely be monitoring and surveillance that is getting a handle of what is being diverted into our country as far as illicit substances go. How are we monitoring top are we of what constitutes these substances.

So that touches very much on drug networks. and that if there was a big pot of money, that would definitely be of the areas. But in addition to that prevention, which I strongly about.

Traditionally, we have just ploughed a lot of money into treatment. And yes, there is a place for treatment for substance use disorders, but prevention has been the second cousin. I'm the far distant removed cousin that doesn't really get a lot of air time, if I could put it that way, as opposed to treatment initiatives go. So if there was bottomless money, definitely strengthen prevention programs that tackle various, not just one segment of the population, but are strongly stratified into funding universal prevention programs targeted and indicated prevention programs. Because the idea is to delay the onset of substance use. And not just cheat when it's already a problem. And that is something I actually feel quite strongly about.

A/Prof. Goodman Sibeko  (07:43)
Nadine, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking time, first of all, to join us today and to give us a sense of who Nadine Harker is. And thank you for agreeing to be part of this podcast series. we're going to end this session here, Getting to Know Nadine. When we come back for our next podcast episode, we're going to be delving into what it looks like to create a culture of prevention. So please be sure to join us on that episode.

Thank you for spending this time with us. We hope you enjoy that as much as we do. Be sure to hop on over to our website, isop.net, where you'll find information on how to sign up for free membership. Take care and catch you on the next one.

About the ISSUP Exchange 

The ISSUP Exchange podcast series explores the evolution of responses to the challenges of substance use—from research and training to ethics, quality standards and evidence-based practice. We connect the dots so you can see the big picture. 

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About ISSUP 

ISSUP is a global network that unites, connects, and shares knowledge across the substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery support workforce. Our mission is to make our members’ work as effective as possible—by providing access to training, resources, and a vibrant professional community.