Guidelines on Co-occurring conditions implementation toolkit now available

An implementation toolkit to support AOD organisations implement the Guidelines on the management of co-occurring alcohol and other drug and mental health conditions in alcohol and other drug treatment settings (3rd edition) into practice is now available.

Developed by researchers from the Matilda Centre at the University of Sydney in collaboration with key stakeholders, including AOD organisational leaders and workers, people with lived experience loved ones, with funding from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, the Guidelines implementation toolkit aims to assist organisational leaders to identify and address the following:

• Evidence-to-practice gaps in relation to Guidelines recommendations
• Barriers to the implementation of Guidelines recommendations
• Implementation strategies and tools to address identified barriers
• Processes for implementing and evaluating change

Download the Guidelines implementation toolkit.

Who is the toolkit for?

The toolkit has been developed for people working within AOD treatment settings who have the capacity to influence change, such as organisational leaders, service managers, clinic directors, quality assurance and improvement officers.

What is in the toolkit?

The toolkit guides organisational leaders through a five-step implementation process for putting Guidelines recommendations into practice.

Steps 1-4 inform the development and evaluation of an implementation work plan described in Step 5. Each step is accompanied by:

• Guidance on how to complete the step
• An example of the step being completed in practice
• Implementation tools.

The toolkit is designed to be flexible and adaptable to individual AOD treatment settings, and guidance and tools do not need to be used prescriptively. Instead, organisational leaders can use their experience, judgement and expertise to apply the toolkit within their local context.