Alcohol and other drugs
PART 2 – Program and service specifications
CONSULTATION DRAFT Oct 2016
Acknowledgements
The Department of Health and Human Services gratefully acknowledges the contribution made by service providers of alcohol and other drug treatment services to the development of the consultation draft of these guidelines; in particular the members of the Sector Reference Group on Community Based Alcohol and Other Drug Service Delivery.If you would like to provide feedback on how these guidelines can be improved, please email
Program guidelines
Alcohol and other drugs
CONSULTATION DRAFT
PART 2: Program and Service Specifications
To receive this publication in an accessible format phone 9096 6000, using the National Relay Service 13 36 77 if required, or email
Authorised and published by the Victorian Government, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne.
© State of Victoria, Department of Health and Human Services August 2016
Where the term ‘Aboriginal’ is used it refers to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous is retained when it is part of the title of a report, program or quotation.
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Alcohol and Other Drugs Program Guidelines
Purpose of the guidelines
Prevention and Early Intervention
Information and support
Community programs
Family Support
Harm Reduction
Needle and Syringe Programs
Peer education
Other harm reduction initiatives
The Treatment System
State-wide screening and referral service - DirectLine
Catchment-based intake and assessment
Care and Recovery Coordination
Counselling
Therapeutic Day Rehabilitation
Non-residential withdrawal
Residential Withdrawal
Residential Rehabilitation
Pharmacotherapy
Population-specific services
Youth-specific services
Aboriginal AOD treatment and support services
Women's Alcohol and Drug Service
Mother-baby residential withdrawal unit
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) care and support services
The Victorian Dual Diagnosis Initiative
Forensic programs and services
Compulsory drug withdrawal under The Severe Substance Dependence Treatment Act (2010)
Statewide Neuropsychology Service
Sector planning, support and capacity building
Catchment based planning
Alcohol and other drug emergency department initiative
Drug and Alcohol Clinical Advisory Service (DACAS)
Grants
Research
Peak and advocacy organisations
Alcohol and Other Drugs Program Guidelines
Purpose of the guidelines
These guidelines provide information for funded agencies about the alcohol and other drugs programs and services funded by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.
The guidelines are divided into three sections.
Part 1: Program Guidelines -Overview outlines the broad approach the Department of Health and Human Services takes in relation to prevention, harm reduction and treatment.
Part 2: Program Guidelines – Program and service specificationsoutlines the service specifications for particular programs and services.
Part 3: Program guidelines – Quality, reporting and performance managementoutlines key regulation and reporting requirements.
This document is Part 2: Program and service specifications.
This document provides agencies with an understanding of the purpose, aims, target groups and key service requirements for alcohol and other drug services and programs. These guidelines are designed to be used in conjunction with other key documents that outline the range of responsibilities and requirements that apply to funded organisations, including policy and funding guidelines, service agreements and legislative and regulatory requirements.
Prevention and Early Intervention
The Victorian Government provides funding for a range of programs and services that aim to minimise or prevent harm associated with alcohol and other drug use.
Information and support
Australian Drug Foundation (ADF) – DrugInfo
DrugInfo provides easy access to information about alcohol and other drugs, including the prevention of related harms, with a range of free resources and publications accessible via the DrugInfo website, an SMS service and a telephone and email information line.
Druglnfo also delivers seminars and forums relating to alcohol and drug use to a wide range of audiences, provides resources to help parents have conversations with their children about alcohol and other drug use, and hosts an email alert service for people who require responsive information in preventing alcohol and drug related harm.
In addition, DrugInfo provides a specialist library service for people working or studying in alcohol and drug-related work settings, and contributes to peer-reviewed published research on prevention, public health, and alcohol and other drugs.
The Australian Drug Foundation encourages professionals and members of the general community to use the service as their first port of call when looking for alcohol and other drug information.
For more information visit the DrugInfo website[1]or contact 1300 85 85 84.
SayWhen
SayWhen is an online screening and self-management tool for people who would like to check whether they are drinking alcohol at harmful levels and learn strategies to reduce their drinking, particularly in peer situations. SayWhen helps people learn the circumstances in which they are likely to misuse alcohol, and develop their own strategies for managing peer pressure. SayWhen is available through the Better Health Channel.
For more information visit the SayWhen website[2].
Ready2Change
Ready2Change is an early intervention web and telephone-based drug support service run by Turning Point Eastern Health. Ready2Change is a structured telephone intervention that provides support to people with alcohol, drug or gambling issues and motivates long-lasting change.
Ready2Change helps people assess, develop and self-manage their own strategies to reduce harmful drug use.
This program canprovide support to individuals who have difficulties accessing face-to-face services due to time constraints, geography, employment, stigma and other barriers.
For more information visit the Turning Point website[3]or contact Directline 1800 888 236.
Community programs
Good Sports Program
The Alcohol and Drug Foundation’s (ADF) Good Sports Program supports sporting clubs to change drinking culture and attitudes towards risky drinking, and improve the way alcohol is managed in sporting clubsin order to reduce alcohol-related risks for young people, families and other sport participants.This includes through providing Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) training and alcohol management standards to clubs that participate in the three-level accreditation of the program.
Over time the program has incorporated a focus on providing smoke free environments, encouraging healthy eating and more recently, addressing illicit drug use in the sports club setting.
Victoria is also implementing a three year project known as ‘Good Sports Junior’ which will work with selected clubs around alcohol, tobacco, healthy eating and spectator behaviour in an attempt to normalise health promoting practices in sporting clubs, with a specific focus on juniors. A key aspect of Good Sports Junior will involve encouraging clubs and parents to role model positive behaviours through the adoption of practices such as exclusion of alcohol at all junior sport events, creating smoke free environments and promoting positive, supportive conduct around juniors.
For more information, visit the Good Sports website[4] or call 1300 858 584.
Prevent Alcohol and Risk RelatedTrauma in Youth (PARTY) Program
PARTY is a full-day, in-hospital education program that aims to reduce risky alcohol and drug-taking behaviour among secondary school students by helping them to understand risks, choice and consequences. Delivered at theRoyal Melbourne and Alfred Hospitals, the PARTY program covers the trauma, injury and poor health that can result from risk taking behaviour and poor decision making, including alcohol misuse and drug use. As part of the program, students are given first-hand experience in established trauma centres, hear from senior staff about what alcohol and drugs do to the body and brain, and have the opportunity to talk to patients and families that have been impacted by injuries resulting from risky behaviour.
The PARTY program at The Alfred has been expanded beyond a school-based education initiativeto also reach young repeat offenders, navy trainees and youth in regional areas through their various outreach programs.
For more information on PARTY at the Alfred visit the website[5] or contact(03) 9076 8888
For more information on PARTY at the Royal Melbourne Hospital visit the website[6]or contact (03) 9342 4294
Family Support
Family members, including the dependent children of a person who is a client of an alcohol and other drug treatment service, are eligible for focused support. A variety of support is available, including information, advice, referral, brief interventions and single session therapies, counselling, peer support and education programs.
The Victorian Ice Action Plan has provided for greater responsiveness to families of people with drug and alcohol issues through significant investment in family drug support services and education.
Family Drug Help
Family Drug Help, delivered by the Self Help Addiction Resource Centre[7], provides services that aim to strengthen the physical and mental health of families dealing with a loved one’s alcohol or drug use, and support the family’s ability to cope with their individual situations. Family Drug Help provides a 24 hour helpline, and access to information and referral to support groups and family counselling.
Family drug support services
Family drug support services are available through selected community health providers across Victoria. Providers deliver programs that are flexible and meet local population need and demand. Activities include peer support, group based support, support for young people whose parents are affected by drugs, targeted support for siblings, grandparents, culturally and linguistically diverse communities and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, individual support (such as counselling) and information sessions.
Family drug education
The department funds family drug education workshops through a consortium of Turning Point, Self Help Addiction Resource Centre (SHARC) and The Bouverie Centre. Their education program Breakthrough: Ice education for familieshelps Victorians to recognise when a family member has a problem with ice, encourage the affected person to get treatment and support them through their recovery. For workshop dates and more information visit Turning Point’s website[8] or call 1800 ICE ADVICE (1800 423 238)
Additional support
Intake and assessment services can provide brief interventions and single-session therapy to families and significant others, and also refer to counselling services,as required. Referrals to family and generalist supports or group and peer-based programs and forums may be appropriate for some people.
For more information see Catchment-based intake and assessment - Family support.
Harm Reduction
The Victorian Government is committed to reducing the harm associated with alcohol and other drug use.Harm reduction strategies are evidence-based public health approaches designed to reduce the negative consequences of ongoing alcohol and other drug use.
Needle and Syringe Programs
The Victorian Needle and Syringe Program (NSP) is a major public health initiative primarily intended to minimise the spread of blood borne viruses (HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C) among injecting drug users and onto the wider community.
NSPs provide injecting drug users with access to sterile injecting equipment, safe syringe disposal options, a range of sexual health products as well as information, education and support.
NSPs can be stand-alone services (primary) with funded staff, or programs that operate within existing organisations (secondary) such as community health services, hospitals,councils, drug treatment agencies, youth organisations, and pharmacies.
NSP services may also be delivered through outreach services, including foot patrols and mobile Needle and Syringe Programs and secure dispensing units.
For more information, visit the department’s website.
Peer education
Peer education programs are highly effective for communicating health promotion and harm reduction messaging to specific population groups, such as young people, injecting drug users or cultural groups. Community members are trained and supported to educate their peers on safer ways to use drugs or reduce the negative consequences of their drug use. Generally, people are very receptive to receiving harm reduction education from their peers and are more likely to take that advice on-board. Peer education programs are also particularly effective in getting harm reduction messages to people who are not ordinarily engaged in mainstream health or social services.
For more information visitthe department’s website[9].
Other harm reduction initiatives
A range of harm reduction initiatives are available for people who affected by alcohol and other drugs. These include specialist alcohol and other drug primary health services, outreach programsand peer education.
Specialist AOD Primary Health Services (SAPHS) were established in 2000-01 in five metropolitan Melbourne drug use hotspots to provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ for vulnerable people including street-based injecting drug users and at risk youth. These services incorporate in-house healthcare servicesandcase management, harm reduction education, and information about drug use and related health issues. Primary health services also provide advice and information via linkage and referral to other appropriate services and outreach.
Eight Municipal Drug Strategy projects are funded across the five hotspots to deliver a diverse range of initiatives for vulnerable cohorts including harm reduction outreach programs. Harm reduction outreach programs proactively engage with vulnerable people experiencing harm from alcohol and other drugs who are not engaged with mainstream health, social support or alcohol and other drug treatment services. Often these vulnerable people are homeless with minimal social support. Outreach workers provide sterile injecting equipment, information, education and referral to a range of health and social services.
Mobile Overdose Response programs are placed in areas in the state where there is high injecting drug use. These programs engage with high risk drug users, particularly injecting drug users, to provide crisis overdose response, overdose prevention workshops, education, client assessments, short-term case management and to support access to a range of social and health services.
The Community Overdose Prevention and Education(COPE)initiativeincreases awareness of the availability and use of naloxone to GPs, pharmacists, other health workers, drug users and their families.Naloxone is a lifesaving medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
The Drug Overdose Prevention Education (DOPE)program educates drug users who are the most likely to be present in the event of an overdose in overdose response, including naloxone administration[10].
The Treatment System
A broad spectrum of community-based and residential treatment options are available to people experiencing harms related to alcohol and other drug use.
State-wide screening and referral service - DirectLine
Overview
DirectLine is a 24/7 state-wide telephone and online service which supports people seeking alcohol and other drug information, advice or referral.DirectLine counsellors use a brief triage tool to determine a person's need for referral to intake and assessment services. Most clients identified as non-dependent users are offered telephone and online supports, including information and advice, brief interventions, worker-facilitated and self-guided supports, and referrals to non-alcohol and other drug services. Clients identified as likelysubstance dependent are referred to catchment based intake and assessment services for screening, comprehensive assessment and further referral to treatment. Directline offers information, advice and brief interventions before, during and after treatment.
Purpose
To provide a centralised point of access to the alcohol and other drug service system offering around the clock access to confidential advice and support.
Target group
DirectLine provides services for all Victorians, including metropolitan, rural and remote populations of primary alcohol and other drug users, their families, friends, carers, and the wider community.
Key service requirements
DirectLine:
•Operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week
•Provides online and telephone screening and facilitated referral to catchment based intake and assessment providers for comprehensive assessment
•Refers people who do not require alcohol and other drug treatment services out of the system and to other health/human services/support services as appropriate
•Manages the bed vacancy register in collaboration with catchment-based intake services and alcohol and other drug treatment services
•Enhances access for people from rural and remote areas and those unable or unwilling to attend face-to-face services
Sector interface
DirectLine provides facilitated referrals for clients by linking them into a three-way telephone call with the appropriate catchment based intake and assessment services. The DirectLine counsellor ensures that clients are handed over to a catchment based service prior to leaving the call, where possible, and provides an introduction based on the initial telephone contact. Where the DirectLine counsellor is not able to speak with an Intake and Assessment worker in the appropriate catchment, with the client’s consent DirectLine emails the service with brief information about the caller. This email includes contact details and preferences regarding next business day contact by the service. Where clients have completed the online screen, DirectLine operators may also email the completed online screen to catchment intake and assessment services.