Target audience: New workers in the  alcohol and other drug specialist sector.

Training details: Participants are encouraged to complete all components of this training event to gain the most comprehensive foundation for working in the alcohol and other drug sector. 

Module 1: Induction Training (Day 1 and day 2 )

Days 1 and 2 build on the eLearning prerequisite and introduce best practice approaches for working in the alcohol and other drug sector. Topics include therapeutic alliance, assessment, case formulation and management, problem-solving and goal setting, case notes, treatment and recovery planning, harm reduction, relapse prevention and management, addressing co-occurring AOD and mental health issues, managing client relationships, professional development and supervision.

Module 2: Motivational Interviewing (Day 3)

This one-day event is equivalent to ST284 Motivational Interviewing – Part 1. Motivational Interviewing is a client-centred, guided approach to helping people make positive changes. This training can also serve as the prerequisite for ST317 Motivational Interviewing – Part 2.

Event 1

*This training is blended with an online learning prerequisite. 

Target audience: Administration staff who work in the  alcohol and other drug specialist sector.

Training details: This training is designed specifically for administration workers who serve as the first point of contact for people accessing alcohol and other drug services. People who use alcohol and other drugs, and their families, may contact or attend a service with a variety of complex needs, or in crisis. Administration workers may find themselves providing emotional support for clients whilst managing the demands of their roles, including busy phone lines and daily office operations.

This training will provide participants with:

• a broad understanding of issues faced by people who use alcohol and other drugs, and their families
• an opportunity to engage in conversations on important topics such as boundaries and confidentiality
• an overview of vicarious trauma and how it may present
• strategies to support worker self-care.

Event 1

Target audience: Human service workers who work with people who use  alcohol and other drugs.

Training details: Maintaining behaviour change over time can be complex and challenging. Even when decisions to change are made with the best of intentions, many everyday resolutions to change behaviours, such as getting fit, eating healthier foods, or reducing alcohol use, are not maintained. Resolution breakdown is common, and a normal part of any change process. Understanding this helps dispel the myth that lapses and relapses are unique to changing alcohol and other drug -related behaviours.

This training aims to assist the worker to develop skills and confidence to support their clients to maintain alcohol and other drug -related behaviour change over time by:

• developing an understanding of why behaviour change can be difficult to maintain
• learning strategies that best support the change process and how to implement them.

Event 1

Target audience: Clinical and support workers in the mental health and alcohol and other drug specialist sectors. 

Training details: This training explores the link between emotion regulation and the use of alcohol and other drugs. Emotion regulation is the ability to manage and respond to emotional experiences in a socially tolerable way. It includes being able to reduce the intensity or duration of emotion states or changing the expression of the emotion to achieve a positive outcome. Emotional regulation generally increases across the lifespan, however it is a skill that may require development. 

This training aims to assist the worker to: 

• develop an understanding of emotion and emotion regulation
• gain skills to support clients to better identify, understand and manage their emotions
• assist clients with strategies to respond to overwhelming emotions in constructive ways.

Event 1

Target audience: Human service workers who work with people who use alcohol and other drugs.

Training details: Motivational interviewing (MI) is an established, evidence-based practice for alcohol and other drug treatment. It is a person-centred, guided approach that supports change by building rapport through engagement and working with the person’s own values and concerns. A key focus of MI is to elicit and enhance the person’s own motivation to change through a strengths-based approach.

Participants in this workshop will:

• be introduced to the theoretical framework of MI
• learn skills aimed at developing a collaborative ‘change conversation’
• understand how to help people identify and explore their ambivalence around alcohol and other drug use.

Event 1

Event 2

Target audience: Clinicians working with people who use alcohol and other drugs.

Prerequisite: Completion of ST284 Motivational Interviewing - Part 1 (or equivalent) within the last 3 years.

Training details: This two-day program will review the theoretical framework and application of MI before working on core counselling skills and intervention strategies in greater depth. Participants will be encouraged to work with their own role plays throughout the two days to more strongly conceptualise and integrate this key therapeutic intervention.

Event 1

Event 2

Target audience: Human service workers who work with people who use alcohol and other drugs and/or experience mental health issues.

Please note: This workshop is best suited for workers who have not previously undertaken training in this area. 

Training details: Trauma informed care and practice (TICP) does not require working directly with the trauma, rather it recognises the impact of a person’s trauma and seeks to embed principles of safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment as well as considering cultural, historical and gender issues on an individual and whole-of-service level, providing those who have experienced trauma with a safer and more supportive service. This event aims to assist individual workers and agencies to begin implementing TICP. 

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• provide an overview of different types of trauma
• describe the links between alcohol and other drugs, mental health issues and trauma
• describe the impacts of trauma
• explain the principles of TICP
• provide participants with an opportunity to consider how they could implement TICP as an individual and within their agency.

Event 1

Event 2 

*This workshop does not provide information about how to undertake trauma counselling.

Target audience: Clinical and support workers in the  alcohol and other drug specialist sector who have limited experience working with people with co-occurring alcohol and other drug and mental health issues.

Please note: It is presumed that participants of this training have foundation knowledge and skills for working with people who use alcohol and other drugs. This training is most suitable for alcohol and other drug workers who have limited experience working with people with co-occurring alcohol and other drug and mental health issues.

Training details: This training will provide further knowledge and skills to support alcohol and other drug specialist sector workers to more accurately identify, and where appropriate address the needs of people presenting with co-occurring mental health and alcohol and other drug issues. 

The topics covered will include:

• co-occurring AOD and mental health issues and their prevalence
• guiding principles for working with people presenting with co-occurring issues
• strategies for responding to co-occurring issues
• best-practice approaches including models of care to support better outcomes for clients.

Event 1

Target audience: AOD Prevention Officers, Health Promotion Officers, Community Development Officers, Youth/Community Engagement Officers or similar, and those who have a role or interest in  alcohol and other drug prevention at a community or population-based level.

Training details: This three-day training provides participants with an overview of the role of prevention in addressing alcohol and other drug issues in the community via an understanding of alcohol and other drug prevention theory, practice and resources to support the implementation of evidence informed alcohol and other drug prevention strategies. 

Participants will gain an understanding of:

• principles and models of alcohol and other drug prevention
• different alcohol and other drug substances and their effects
• the culture of alcohol use in Australia
• liquor licensing framework and avenues for community involvement
• public health and education campaigns and how they can be localised
• culturally sensitive ways of working with Aboriginal communities.

Event 1 

Event 2

Target audience: Prevention Officers, Health Promotion Officers, Community Development Officers, Youth/Community Engagement Officers or similar, and those who have a role or interest in coordinating  alcohol and other drug prevention at a community or population-based level.

Pre-requisite: Completion of ST275: An introduction to population-based alcohol and other drugs prevention within the last 2 years.

Training details: This interactive two-day workshop will provide participants with the knowledge of how to develop, plan, implement and evaluate an Alcohol and Other Drugs Management Plan (AODMP) to address alcohol and other drug issues at a community or population-based level.

Participants will be provided with:

• a step-by-step process for developing an AODMP
• skills for stakeholder engagement, including facilitation skills
• tools and models for developing an AODMP
• resources and supports to utilise when facilitating the development of an AODMP
• the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge learned during ST275 An introduction to alcohol and other drug prevention to a community case study

Event 1

Target audience: Human service workers and frontline workers responding to VSU issues.

Training details: VSU is a complex issue which can have a significant impact on individuals, families, and communities.

This workshop will provide a comprehensive overview of:

• volatile substances and their methods of use
• the short- and long-term effects of VSU
• VSU patterns and prevalence 
• the risks and harms associated with VSU.

The training will also include information about best practice strategies to respond to VSU and provide an opportunity to explore harm reduction strategies that can be implemented at an individual, agency and community level. 

Event 1

Event 2

Target audience: Service providers and stakeholders interested in reducing alcohol-related harm in their community.

Training details: This one-day event is designed to support the planning and delivery of localised FASD prevention activities.

Following the workshop participants will be able to:

• describe how prenatal alcohol exposure can result in FASD
• plan localised prevention activities to reduce alcohol-related harm
• create a FASD prevention network in their community
• promote Valuable Conversations for reducing the impact of alcohol use during childbearing years training event
• apply to the Commission’s FASD Prevention Funding Program.

Event 1

*Please note this training does not provide information on FASD diagnosis or treatment.

Training details: Gatekeeper Suicide Prevention training is a two-day workshop designed for professionals and paraprofessionals, whose roles bring them into regular contact with people at risk of suicide. This workshop aims to help participants gain an understanding of the problem of suicide and self-harming behaviour and to provide an understanding of the link between mental health disorders and suicidal behaviours. Participants will acquire knowledge of the limits to confidentiality and the importance of consultation.

The topics covered will include:

• identifying suicide risk
• providing a framework for risk assessment and intervention
• developing appropriate intervention skills
• understanding the importance of postvention.

Event 1

Target audience: Human service workers (e.g. social workers, counsellors, nurses/midwives) with clients of childbearing age. 

Training details: This two-day training event is designed to increase confidence in delivering FASD prevention advice and information. 

The training covers:

• reflective practice as a tool to improve working with community members
• trauma informed care and practice to reduce shame and stigma around prenatal alcohol exposure and FASD
• Motivational Interviewing to support non-judgmental service delivery for behaviour change
• FASD prevention using best practice for alcohol harm reduction and prevention
• brief interventions to bring together new knowledge and skills to practice.

*Please note this training does not provide information on FASD diagnosis or treatment.

Event 1

Target audience: Human service providers whose role supports brief  alcohol and other drug interventions.

Training details: Learn how to maximise the impact of your interventions when you only have a limited period of time with clients who may be using  alcohol and other drugs. This one-day introductory course will best suit clinicians/workers whose primary role does not include counselling-oriented alcohol and other drug-related therapeutic interventions (e.g. nurses, support workers, case managers).

In this workshop, participants will:

• examine personal attitudes and values and how they can impact on client work
• explore the concept of harm minimisation
• explore how to structure meaningful and respectful conversations with clients around harm reduction
• learn how to conduct an effective brief intervention for mild to moderate alcohol and other drug use, including the use of screening tools
• develop an understanding of behaviour change and how to support clients at different points in this process.

Event 1 

*This training is blended with an online learning prerequisite. 

Target audience: Human service workers in a counselling role who are new to supporting people with their  alcohol and other drug use.

Training details: Enhance your therapeutic skills and foundational alcohol and other drug knowledge to effectively engage and support people who use alcohol and other drugs. This two-day training is tailored to counselling settings.

In this workshop you will:

• examine factors that impact on client engagement such as: attitudes and values, trauma informed care and practice, stigma and co-occurring disorders
• learn how to use models and frameworks to assess alcohol and other drug use
• develop a targeted, effective intervention based on a care plan using a case formulation and a harm reduction approach
• learn how to support clients in the prevention and management of relapse and recovery.

Event 1

*This training is blended with an online learning prerequisite. 

Target audience: Workers in the not-for-profit, non-government mental health sector and Licensed Private Psychiatric Hostels.

Training details: This training is designed to build on existing skills and develop new practices for working with people with co-occurring  alcohol and other drug and mental health issues. As this training focuses on alcohol and other drugs, a working understanding of mental health issues by participants is presumed.

On completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• discuss historical changes to the way alcohol and other drug use is understood in society
• apply the biopsychosocial model, alongside the recovery model, when working with people presenting with co-occurring mental health and alcohol and other drug issues
• demonstrate an awareness of harm reduction by discussing and debating the concepts raised in the presentations
• apply the presented models for understanding alcohol and other drug use to the screening and assessment process, and to a case study
• discuss the concept of relapse and identify strategies which may prevent relapse occurring. 

Event 1 

*This training is blended with an online learning prerequisite. 

Target audience: Professionals working with people who use  alcohol and other drugs in the government mental health sector.

Training details: This three-day training is designed to support clinicians in the government mental health sector to increase their confidence and competence when working with clients with co-occurring mental health and alcohol and other drug issues.

During this training, participants will:

• gain an understanding of the factors that can contribute to alcohol and other drug use
• describe the effects, functionality and categorisation of alcohol and other drugs
• identify the prevalence and impact of co-occurring alcohol and other drug and mental health issues
• gain practical skills in raising alcohol and other drug issues
• describe the National Drug Strategy - Harm Minimisation and how harm reduction fits within this
• increase their knowledge of brief motivational interviewing and identify how it can be applied in their role
• understand the concept of lapse/relapse and strategies which may prevent relapse from occurring
• identify referral options to best support the people you work with.

Event 1

*This training is blended with an online learning prerequisite. 

This training is a two-day event to build worker confidence to deliver FASD prevention. The training content covers:

• reflective practice as a tool to improve working with community members
• trauma-informed care and practice to help recognise why alcohol use may happen during pregnancy
• motivational interviewing to express partnership, acceptance, compassion, and empowerment
• FASD prevention approaches
• resources that to integrate new knowledge into brief interventions. 

Register here

This one-day workshop is designed to strengthen communities to deliver FASD prevention. The workshop content:

• introduces FASD for stakeholders
• outlines FASD prevention
• identifies possible community and/or regional FASD prevention activities 
• explains the Commission’s FASD Prevention Funding Program (workshop completion is a funding program requirement)
• aims to build a local FASD prevention network.

Register here