Alcohol and other drug treatment services

Activities to improve collaboration amongst alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services have largely been driven by the establishment of two separate, but connected, communities of practice – one for practitioners working in AOD services, and a second for supervisors working in the AOD sector.  These communities of practice have supported regular connection within the sector, facilitating increased awareness of service information, and allowing the sharing of practice wisdom.

In addition, specific clinical and service pathways related to AOD interventions, withdrawal services and other AOD support services have been developed in HealthPathways [1] and actively promoted to GPs.

[1] https://brisbanenorth.communityhealthpathways.org

The actions to achieve this objective are focused on promoting best practice related to language and behaviours when supporting people who use drugs and/or alcohol, and working towards the commitment of all healthcare organisations and practitioners to best practice and high standards of care in an attempt to address stigma.

A couple of key activities that have occurred in support of these actions include:

• The active promotion of Language Matters [1] created and disseminated by the Network of Alcohol and Other Drugs Agencies (NADA). This simple but effective resource provides workers with best practice guidelines on how to use language to empower clients and reinforce a person-centred approach
• Implementation of Putting Together the Puzzle: Stigma Discrimination and Injecting Drug Use With funding from the Queensland Mental Health Commission, the Queensland Injectors Health Network (QuIHN) have delivered Statewide training.  The workshop was originally developed by the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League.

[1] https://www.nada.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/language_matters_-_online_-_final.pdf

Work to achieve this objective has been largely informed by a workforce survey to determine the explicit training needs of the AOD workforce.  Key activities have included:

• Frontline AOD agencies, such as Brisbane Youth Service [1] offering fully supervised university student placements to youth work, social work and psychology students interested in working with vulnerable populations
• The Queensland Network of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies (QNADA) partnered with the Queensland AIDS Council (QuAC) to develop and deliver the e-learning module on Chemsex [2]
• QNADA developing and conducting a half-day forum on managing privacy, consent and confidentiality contextualised for specific populations who use alcohol and/or other drugs
• Both Dovetail [3] and Insight [4] have continued to expand the extensive suite of workshops, e-learning modules, toolkits and resources they have available – particularly targeting the AOD workforce. The resources are freely available.

[1] https://brisyouth.org/student-placements/
[2] https://qnada.org.au/wp-content/uploads/eLearning/Chemsex/story_html5.html
[3] https://www.dovetail.org.au/training/
[4] https://insight.qld.edu.au/

Work to achieve this objective has included reviewing and using routinely collected data from the Alcohol and other Drugs Treatment Services – National Minimum Dataset (AODTS-NMDS) to inform and reshape service responses as required, as well as developing and promoting the AOD Service Finder [1] to support effective matching of service delivery responses to need.

[1] https://qnada.org.au/service-finder/

The actions to achieve this objective are focused on improving access to, and services to, vulnerable populations, including:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• People exiting prison or youth detention
• Young people
• People from culturally and linguistically diverse communities>
• People from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer + (LGBTIQ+) communities.

Insight promotes an extensive list of workshops, guidelines and resources available to support the AOD sector to practice according to best practice principles and in culturally safe and appropriate ways – including:

• The recent addition of a webinar focused on Trauma Informed Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients [1]
• The resource Meth Check – Ways to Stay Safe (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander version) [2]
• Helping Asylum Seeker and Refugee Background People with Problematic Alcohol and Other Drug Use – A guide for community support and AOD workers [3]
• A webinar on Alcohol and other Drug Treatment within a prison setting for Aboriginal men [4].

A range of other resources are available on the Insight website.

Dovetail is specifically focused on providing clinical advice and professional support to workers, services and communities across Queensland who engage with young people affected by alcohol and other drug use.  A range of resources are available on the Dovetail website.

[1] https://insight.qld.edu.au/training/trauma-informed-care-for-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-clients/detail
[2] https://insight.qld.edu.au/toolkits/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander/detail
[3] https://insight.qld.edu.au/shop/helping-asylum-seeker-and-refugee-background-people-with-problematic-alcohol-and-other-drug-use
[4] https://insight.qld.edu.au/training/alcohol-and-other-drug-treatment-within-a-prison-setting-for-aboriginal-men/detail