New Frontiers: Practice Innovations In Addiction Nursing

Matua Raki and DANA (Drug and Alcohol Nurses Association) are pleased to host a series of seminars for nurses who work with people who have substance use problems/addictions.

These seminars are free and DAPAANZ registered practitioners will be awarded 15 continuing education points.

The aims of the seminars are to foster relationships, enhance skills, hear about new and planned initiatives and explore career opportunities.

Addiction nurses will present on their experience of working with: an Emergency Department, Withdrawal Management, Co-existing Problems, the Youth Drug Court and in Rural settings. There will also be presentations about the Nurse Practitioner Pathway, NZ and overseas trends and "where to from here".

To register for the seminar in Christchurch on 24th Feb please click here

In 2010 Daryle Deering visited mental health nursing academics, an OST service and nurse led centres in the US as part of an overseas study leave. On the basis of her observations and conversations from that trip Daryle has prepared a report discussing implications for nursing in the New Zealand addiction sector.

"While there are clear differences in population size and health care policy and delivery systems between the US and New Zealand, there are similarities with respect to aging populations, increasing prevalence of chronic health care problems and lifestyle related disorders, increasing complexity of health care presentations and the trend towards a greater emphasis on people receiving continuing care within primary care and non-government (NGO) sectors. There are similar trends with respect to workforce issues including shortages of doctors, particularly in rural areas and in areas of greater deprivation.

Such factors promote the urgent need to consider the strategic development of advanced practice nursing roles in the New Zealand mental health and addiction treatment sectors. While nurse practitioner roles have been introduced in New Zealand there have been significant barriers to their widespread implementation, and their potential has yet to be realised with respect to providing health care for people with addiction related problems. To date, there are few mental health nurse practitioners and a only a small number of nurses on postgraduate education pathways who are working towards nurse practitioner status specifically with an addiction related scope of practice."

To access the full report click here

Daryle Deering RN PhD, National Addiction Centre, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch.

Co-existing problems (CEP) has been adopted as a term by addiction and mental health providers in NZ to describe the presence of both substance use and mental health problems in the same person at the same time. CEP has also come to refer generally to the co-occurrence of a range of complex issues including physical health problems, cognitive problems and social problems.

Matua Raki has been working with the Ministry of Health, Te Pou and the Werry Centre to support and enhance the capability of addiction and mental health services and practitioners to respond to people with CEP.

Te Ariari o te Oranga: The Assessment and Management of People with Co-existing Mental Health and Substance Use Problems 2010 which was written by Dr.Fraser Todd and was released in April 2010 by the Ministry of Health. It informed the development of initial CEP training for addiction and mental health practitioners.

Training in Formulation, a process for describing a person with CEP, has been offered throughout NZ to mental health and addiction practitioners from both the NGO and DHB sectors since November 2010. These workshops will continue to be offered throughout 2011-12 Matua Raki will also continue to develop and support new resources and training designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of addiction and mental health practitioners and existing CEP capable practitioners.

Alongside training and skill enhancement for individual practitioners Matua Raki will support the development of processes and tools to review and audit the adoption and implementation of CEP responsiveness and capability at a service or system level and at a individual practitioner level.

The discussion document Consumer and Peer Roles in the Addiction Sector was published in September 2010. The document creates discussion around the roles and activities of the consumer and peer workforce and the skills, knowledge and competencies around three specific roles: advice/consultancy, peer support, and advocacy. Each role has its own skills and knowledge requirements but all share the one essential: a lived experience of alcohol and/or other drug use. For a copy of the Consumer and Peer Roles in the Addiction Sector guide, please click here

Working with families experiencing complex and challenging issues... alcohol and other drug use being one.

These four resources are ‘Creating Spaces’ guidelines, developed by Kina Trust in partnership with Matua Raki. These guidelines aim to promote best practices for alcohol and other drug workers to engage with families, to maximise wellbeing and the capacity for positive change.

1. Guidelines for Fostering Engagement with Families (download)

2. Guidelines for Home Visiting (download)

3. Guidelines for working with Families and Family Violence (download)

4. Guidelines for Fostering the Care and Protection of Children with Parental Alcohol & Other Drug Issues (download)

Matua Raki has supported Kina Trust in developing this material for supervisors in the alcohol and other drug sector, aimed at equipping supervisors in their work to promote and support family inclusive practice. These resources are aligned with other Kina Family Inclusive Practice resources and best practice supervision models.

download  

Matua Raki has a clear focus on enhancing the capability of the addiction workforce to work with the family and whānau of their service users.  Matua Raki will be exploring models of practice and emerging practice that can support this work. 

Matua Raki in partnership with Kina Trust will be releasing their Think Parent resource at the 2011 Cutting Edge Conference in Auckland. This resource offers addiction services and their practitioners some tips and ideas on how to reduce the barriers for parents accessing services, how to maintain a family inclusive focus and how to work with the children and young people who may attend services with their parents.  This resource will be available free of charge to addiction services throughout the country.

Matua Raki continues to work with and support the work of Kina Trust and will support the continued roll-out of the Creating Spaces and Family Inclusive Practice (FIP) Supervisors workshops where expressions of interest from the regions are sought.

Workforce related issues impact on almost every aspect of addiction prevention and treatment. In 2009, the Ministry of Health asked Matua Raki what the addiction workforce was expected to look like over the next 10-20 years. One of the catalysts for this project is the expected increase in demand for addiction services as a result of the Government’s Drivers of Crime initiative.

Forecasting is a key workforce planning function but one that has not been utilised in the addiction sector until now.  A small team from Matua Raki, together with forecasting specialists from the Ministry of Health and DHBNZ, are developing a national addiction workforce forecasting model custom-made to fit the forecasting needs of the New Zealand addiction sector. A group of sector experts and stakeholders will also provide advice and support.

The potential to develop an innovative tool of this type will enable the sector to identify gaps in the current workforce and the related areas, such as skills, qualifications and supervision.

Information on clients’ access to addiction services suggests that significant waiting times exist. With the implementation of further alcohol and drug control measures, there will be significant increases in demand for treatment services. To meet anticipated future workforce demand, we need to ensure that the right people are available to provide the right services at the right time and location.

The development of a robust forecasting model and associated ongoing data collection process will enable the addiction sector to reliably forecast future workforce demand and will support workforce planning and development for the addiction sector, and contribute to improved client access to quality addiction services.