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Co Morbidity

Project Outline

SANDAS Comorbidity Project 2008

"Building better services for people with drug & alcohol and mental health issues"

In 2006 the Commonwealth Government through Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) announced major funding to improve mental health services in Australia. The package included funds to improve services for those who have both a drug and alcohol and a mental health problem (comorbid conditions). The Alcohol and Other Drugs NGO sector received $66 million in capacity building grants over 3 years under the Improved Services Initiative.

7 South Australian NGOs have been funded to improve:

Their knowledge base, skills and support available to staff,

The policies and procedures of organizations to better reflect the needs of working with comorbid clients and

The levels of cooperation with other service providers and with other sectors.

4 other NGOs are awaiting a notification of their applications. I

In the package, DoHA has funded the AOD peak bodies in all States to assist target NGOs to achieve these aims. SANDAS will work at an SA sector-wide level to set up cooperative arrangements, coordinate training, support individual organizations and to assist with information sharing. SANDAS has been funded to employ two staff for this project, initially for one year.

The SANDAS Comorbidity Project will:

Build links between the AOD NGO sector and other health and community support sectors.

Build up a picture of the range of services AOD NGOs are providing to people presenting with comorbidity, help identify and bridge any gaps and issues.

Establish effective networks with other project staff and relevant people in other sectors.

Coordinate training opportunities and liaise with training providers to ensure relevant and targeted training is provided.

Develop an online resource and information capacity for easy access to information on comorbidity issues, training opportunities, conferences and the latest programs and research.

The project staff at SANDAS are Andris Banders and Andrew Biven. Andris has previously worked at SACOSS and most recently with MHCSA and Andrew has a long history with SANDAS, Indigenous AOD services and NGO and Government AOD services. Please contact them by using the live email link or phone 08 82129020, if you wish to discuss this project.