Delivery Mode: Online

ACECHO- AOD Collaborative ECHO

The AOD Collaborative ECHO (ACECHO) partnership involves VAADA, Turning Point, and Goulburn Valley Health. This dedicated ECHO for Victorian AOD state-funded services aims to enhance the capabilities of AOD workers in addressing substance use issues among their clients. The primary objective of these sessions is to foster a community of AOD workers with varying levels of expertise, united by the shared goal of improving the well-being, and achieving positive outcomes, for individuals with problematic substance use.

Conducted under the guidance of Turning Point, each session commences with a presentation delivered by a Turning Point expert or a related professional, focusing on a specific topic. This is followed by an in-depth case consultation, during which attendees have the opportunity to ask questions or offer recommendations based on a case study presented by one of the participants.

ACECHO Timetable July-November

 

23rd October, 2024

When too much caution can mean too little care: CAPA – Community Access to Pharmacotherapy for Alcohol
Presenter – Dr Paul McCartney

Alcohol Use Disorder is a prevalent condition, yet access to effective, evidence-based medical treatments remains significantly inadequate. This discussion aims to explore the available treatments and emphasise our collective responsibility to ensure their utilization.

Dr Paul McCartney is a General Practitioner and Addiction Medicine Specialist who has worked in Community Health in Fitzroy and Collingwood for the past 24 years. He has particular interests in addiction medicine, homelessness and mental health. Paul has also worked in the role of Clinical Mentor for the North West Pharmacotherapy Network helping to support GPs to manage opiate dependent patients and was an advisor for the GP Clinical Advisory Service. He also ran a GP addiction medicine clinic in Shepparton for seven years. Paul has provided training in opioid agonist treatment over a number of years to many GPs and other health practitioners and continues to supervise GP and Addiction Medicine Registrars in community health. Paul is passionate about people wanting help with substance use problems being able to access appropriate treatments. Paul has three children and shares a farm in Nagambie with two other families where he tends an organic orchard and nut grove and keeps bees.

Launch zoom meeting

 

Submit a Case Presentation to ACECHO

Case presentations by participating healthcare providers are the cornerstone of the ECHO model. Presentations are always followed by an open Q & A discussion of the case and recommendations by the hub team. To submit a case study, click Go to Form.

Go to Form

 

Introduction to Aboriginal and Cultural Safety

VACCHOs Introduction to Aboriginal Cultural Safety training encompasses, and builds on, cultural awareness content by providing considerations and advice to implement cultural safety considerations into practice. Participant learning and understanding are enhanced by the personal stories and the lived experience of our facilitators while exploring Aboriginal identities, cultures, and history.

VACCHO’s Introduction to Aboriginal Cultural Safety training aims to provide the necessary foundational knowledge to enable participants to:

  • Develop a greater understanding of Aboriginal cultural and social perspectives
  • Engage meaningfully with Aboriginal peoples and Communities
  • Strengthen existing relationships and integrate cultural safety into practice
  • Identify ways to embed and apply learnings in professional and personal contexts.

Session topics include:

  • The historical and intergenerational impacts of colonisation and policies and how they have shaped Aboriginal culture, peoples and Communities
  • Aspects of Aboriginal identities, culture and protocols
  • Fostering respectful relationships with Aboriginal peoples and Communities
  • Foundational skills and strategies for implementing cultural safety into practice

Location

Online

 

Eligibility Criteria

This training is suitable for anyone interested in gaining the necessary knowledge and understanding to effectively communicate, engage, and work with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples in a culturally safe manner.

This training has been funded for workers employed in a Victorian State-funded Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) service, including those who are new to the AOD sector or recently employed under the COVID-19 Workforce Initiative and Peer workers.

Who is not eligible?

Students on placement or internships, workers from other community sectors such as Family Violence, Homelessness and Mental Health and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Please ensure you have clearance to attend from your line manager. If you cannot attend, even if you find out the day before, please cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waiting list.

ACECHO- AOD Collaborative ECHO

The AOD Collaborative ECHO (ACECHO) partnership involves VAADA, Turning Point, and Goulburn Valley Health. This dedicated ECHO for Victorian AOD state-funded services aims to enhance the capabilities of AOD workers in addressing substance use issues among their clients. The primary objective of these sessions is to foster a community of AOD workers with varying levels of expertise, united by the shared goal of improving the well-being, and achieving positive outcomes, for individuals with problematic substance use.

Conducted under the guidance of Turning Point, each session commences with a presentation delivered by a Turning Point expert or a related professional, focusing on a specific topic. This is followed by an in-depth case consultation, during which attendees have the opportunity to ask questions or offer recommendations based on a case study presented by one of the participants.

ACECHO Timetable July-November

28th August, 2024

Seeking Relief: Opioids & Pain
Presenter – Dr Adam Straub

This presentation will look at a review of the intersection between pain management and Opioid Use Disorder, how to identify Opioid Use Disorder in individuals presenting with pain syndromes and develop skills in approaching and supporting individuals with these presentation.

Dr Adam Straub, an Addiction Medicine and General Medicine Physician at Ballarat Health Services, graduated from The University of Melbourne in 2008 and developed a strong interest in Addiction Medicine after working in critical care and emergency departments. He is an advocate for opioid agonist therapy and harm minimisation education, actively supporting medical students and colleagues across various disciplines.

 

Launch zoom meeting

 

Submit a Case Presentation to ACECHO

Case presentations by participating healthcare providers are the cornerstone of the ECHO model. Presentations are always followed by an open Q & A discussion of the case and recommendations by the hub team. To submit a case study, click Go to Form.

Go to Form

 

Working with People with Borderline Personality Disorder – Foundational Training

This workshop is for AOD workers who would like to develop their skills in working with people who have borderline personality disorder (BPD) and explores the core common factors of effective engagement with this cohort.

It will provide a basic overview of signs and symptoms of BPD. The workshop will develop the workers’ understanding and practice in working effectively with people with BPD. It will include a developmental understanding of factors contributing to a diagnosis of BPD, the ongoing effects of early life experiences and complex childhood trauma, and the role of therapeutic relationships. The workshop will also focus on the assessment of, and working with risk, as well as principles for treatment and treatment planning.

Location: Online (Your zoom link will be sent to you a few days before the training)

Learning Objectives

  • Understand how BPD occurs and presents
  • Identify the principles of effective, therapeutic supportive relationships with people living with BPD
  • Set and maintain limits and boundaries with clients and work with strong emotions
  • Practice various grounding skills to stabilize emotions
  • Demonstrate an awareness of risk factors and assess the severity of risk
  • Appreciate the importance of self care, self awareness, and reflection when engaging with people who have BPD

 

Eligibility Criteria

This training has been funded for workers employed in a Victorian State-funded Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) service, including Peer and LLE workers and workers participating in the AOD Traineeship Program.

Who is not eligible?

Students on placement or internships, workers from other community sectors such as family violence, homelessness, mental health, and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Please ensure you have clearance from your line manager to attend. If you cannot attend,  cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.

No-shows will be charged a $50 cancellation fee.

ACECHO- AOD Collaborative ECHO

The AOD Collaborative ECHO (ACECHO) partnership involves VAADA, Turning Point, and Goulburn Valley Health. This dedicated ECHO for Victorian AOD state-funded services aims to enhance the capabilities of AOD workers in addressing substance use issues among their clients. The primary objective of these sessions is to foster a community of AOD workers with varying levels of expertise, united by the shared goal of improving the well-being, and achieving positive outcomes, for individuals with problematic substance use.

Conducted under the guidance of Turning Point, each session commences with a presentation delivered by a Turning Point expert or a related professional, focusing on a specific topic. This is followed by an in-depth case consultation, during which attendees have the opportunity to ask questions or offer recommendations based on a case study presented by one of the participants.

ACECHO Timetable July-November

 

14th August, 2024

Youth in Focus: Addressing Dual Challenges of Substance Use and Mental Illness
Presenter – Dr Enrico Cementon

AOD disorder increasingly account for years lived with disability relative to other mental health disorders in young people and indeed all health disorders in this age group. This presentation outlines the implications of comorbidity between AOD and other mental health issues in young people and provides some guidance about the clinical approaches to young people when they present in this way. There will be references to psychosocial and pharmacological treatment principles.

Dr Enrico Cementon is an Addiction Medicine Specialist and is currently the Lead Consultant Psychiatrist at Orygen, which is a specialist youth mental health service. His experience includes inpatient and outpatient psychiatry, general adult, youth and addiction psychiatry.

 

Launch zoom meeting

 

Submit a Case Presentation to ACECHO

Case presentations by participating healthcare providers are the cornerstone of the ECHO model. Presentations are always followed by an open Q & A discussion of the case and recommendations by the hub team. To submit a case study, click Go to Form.

Go to Form

 

Introduction into Eating Disorders Webinar

This introductory webinar on eating disorders is designed for AOD workers.  It aims to enhance your understanding and response to eating disorders, focusing on key features for early identification, responses to individuals with eating disorders, shared care approaches, treatment options, and invaluable insights from lived experience.

Objectives

  • Key Features for Early Identification understand clinical features, prevalence and impact, risk factors and warning signs of eating disorders
  • Response to an Eating Disorder explores engaging with a person experiencing an eating disorder, screening and screening tools, completing a comprehensive eating disorder assessment, and formulating an initial understanding of the eating disorder
  • Shared Care covers referring to appropriate services in the stepped system of care for eating disorders, understanding and working in the multidisciplinary care team, and engaging families and supports
  • Treatment provides an understanding of mental health treatment, medical care, nutrition support and stepping up care and/or referral pathways
  • Lived Experience helps us to understand the perspective of the consumer struggling with an eating disorder

 

IMPORTANT: Enrolments for training will go live approximately two months before training commences. If you do not have an Elevate! account, you will need to create your account first. Every time you wish to enrol into training, you will need to sign in. If you have not signed up to Elevate! previously, click the REGISTER button to create an account, then enrol.

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Eligibility Criteria

This training has been funded for workers employed in a Victorian State-funded Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) service, including Peer and LLE workers and workers participating in the AOD Traineeship Program.

Who is not eligible?

Students on placement or internships, workers from other community sectors such as family violence, homelessness, mental health, and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Please ensure you have clearance from your line manager to attend. If you cannot attend,  cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.

No-shows will be charged a $50 cancellation fee.

Superskills: Core Skills for Supervisors 2-Day Workshop

Dates:

Day 1: Thursday, May 9 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM

Day 2: Thursday, May 16 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM

Location: Online

Description:

If you are a practice or clinical supervisor in the alcohol and other drug sector (or looking to become one), this workshop is for you. Gain a deep understanding of the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ and ensure that you have the right theoretical and practical foundation skills to offer powerful practice supervision across different contexts and supervisees.

You will learn about developing and implementing supervision contracts and plans, assessing supervisee development needs, and navigating challenges and roadblocks.

Learning outcomes

  • Understand different approaches to supervision and determine which one is right for you and your supervisees
  • Understand and apply structured practical supervisory processes to deepen core supervisory relationship skills, including listening, questioning, guiding, and giving and receiving feedback
  • Understand and utilise the reflective practice model of supervision
  • Understand and practice self-reflection and self-practice as a way of improving supervisory skills
  • Increase skills in facilitating reflective practice in staff
  • Understand and utilise a framework to support decision-making with ethical dilemmas
  • Improve knowledge and skill in responding to staff exposed to complex client presentations

Eligibility Criteria

This is a specialist skills workshop suitable for advanced practitioners who are current or future practice supervisors. This workshop is suitable for practitioners in low threshold and clinical settings.

This training has been funded for workers employed in a Victorian State-funded Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) service, including Peer and LLE workers.

Who is not eligible?

Students on placement or internships, workers from other community sectors such as family violence, homelessness, mental health, and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Superskills: Core Skills for Supervisors 2-Day Workshop

Dates:

Day 1: Thursday, May 9 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM

Day 2: Thursday, May 16 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM

Location: Online

Description:

If you are a practice or clinical supervisor in the alcohol and other drug sector (or looking to become one), this workshop is for you. Gain a deep understanding of the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ and ensure that you have the right theoretical and practical foundation skills to offer powerful practice supervision across different contexts and supervisees.

You will learn about developing and implementing supervision contracts and plans, assessing supervisee development needs, and navigating challenges and roadblocks.

Learning outcomes

  • Understand different approaches to supervision and determine which one is right for you and your supervisees
  • Understand and apply structured practical supervisory processes to deepen core supervisory relationship skills, including listening, questioning, guiding, and giving and receiving feedback
  • Understand and utilise the reflective practice model of supervision
  • Understand and practice self-reflection and self-practice as a way of improving supervisory skills
  • Increase skills in facilitating reflective practice in staff
  • Understand and utilise a framework to support decision-making with ethical dilemmas
  • Improve knowledge and skill in responding to staff exposed to complex client presentations

Eligibility Criteria

This is a specialist skills workshop suitable for advanced practitioners who are current or future practice supervisors. This workshop is suitable for practitioners in low threshold and clinical settings.

This training has been funded for workers employed in a Victorian State-funded Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) service, including Peer and LLE workers.

Who is not eligible?

Students on placement or internships, workers from other community sectors such as family violence, homelessness, mental health, and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

2-day Motivational Interviewing Foundational Skills Copy

Dates

Day one: Tuesday July 4th, 9:00AM – 4:30PM

Day two: Tuesday July 11th 9:00AM – 4:30PM

*Download both days to your calendar.  Bookings can only be made from day one of training.

Description

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative method for guiding conversations about change. More than a set of techniques, MI is a discipline in its own right that brings together a set of values, principles and disciplined use of skills to assist people in resolving ambivalence and deepen motivation to pursue meaningful changes for them.

While the skills take time and practice, the conversation style is gentle, and curious and comes from a place of faith in the other person. The hope is that, together, we may discover what is meaningful for this person and what choices would work best for them, knowing who they are and what they want deep down for their future. MI asks us to be mindful of the way our own hopes and assumptions can interfere in the process as much as they can help and create a space of genuine enquiry and deepening understanding.

Rather than replace other approaches, MI can enhance and deepen the full range of interventions we use by bringing a more acute awareness to the how and when of conversation rather than just what we talk about.

The training is highly interactive, with a focus on practical skill development. The two-day workshop will offer an opportunity to:

  • Gain a clear and up-to-date understanding of MI – what it is, how it works and recent changes to the framework
  • Increase understanding of the change process
  • Review and practice the core skills
  • Apply the skills to the change process
  • Increase ability to work effectively with resistance and ambivalence
  • Practice skills in softening sustained talk and eliciting change talk
  • Develop strategies to continue learning and practising MI.

 

Eligibility Criteria

This training has been funded for workers employed in a Victorian State-funded Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) service, including those who are new to the AOD sector or recently employed under the COVID-19 Workforce Initiative and Peer workers.

Who is not eligible?

Students on placement or internships, workers from other community sectors such as Family Violence, Homelessness and Mental Health and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Please ensure you have clearance to attend from your line manager. If you cannot attend, even if you find out the day before, please cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waiting list.

Motivational Interviewing: Developing Skills 1-day

Have you completed a two-day Foundation Skills course in Motivational Interviewing?

Are you looking for a chance to refresh your MI skills, consolidate learning and look for your next steps in learning MI? Then this one-day professional development workshop may be for you.

Perhaps you enjoyed meeting MI, but the details are getting fuzzy. Or you’ve been using the skills and are curious to check in with how you’re going. Or maybe you’re looking for the next step in developing your use of MI in practice.

While MI offers practical and accessible skills to try from the outset, the approach takes time and practice to make the most of its potential to help us have more meaningful and productive conversations about change.

Overview

This workshop provides participants to practice core skills in a positive learning environment with coached feedback. The aim is to have fun revisiting the skills, and gain more focus in their ongoing practice.

The workshop extends the foundation skills training, including deepening reflections, exploring the role of values and working with change talk.

The learning objectives include:

  • Refresh and deepen your understanding of the MI framework
  • Learn from observation and small group practice
  • Deepen understanding of guiding within a client-centred approach
  • Practice core component skills, such as developing useful complex reflections within change conversations
  • Practice identifying core personal values and their relevance to the change process
  • Practice working with change talk
  • Develop strategies to monitor our use of the skills and continue to develop after the workshop is over.

Workshop details

The workshop will be held online via Zoom, providing break-out rooms for small group discussion and skills practice. Workshop numbers will be limited to create a comfortable and personalised learning environment.

 

Eligibility Criteria

  • You must have completed MI Foundation Skills training to enrol in this course
  • This training has been funded for workers employed in a Victorian State-funded Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) service, including Peer and LLE workers.

Who is not eligible?

Students on placement or internships, workers from other community sectors such as family violence, homelessness, mental health, and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Please ensure you have clearance from your line manager to attend. If you cannot attend,  cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.

No-shows will be charged a $50 cancellation fee.

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