Transforming policy and practice with Australia’s AOD peak bodies: Celebrating 15 years
Over the past 15 years, 360Edge has partnered closely with Australia's alcohol and other drug peak bodies, significantly shaping service delivery, policy, and practice across the country. Today, we're reflecting on these meaningful collaborations and their lasting impacts.
Enhancing workforce skills across the country
Our journey includes delivering tailored training and workshops to more than 760 participants across the Northern Territory with AADANT, Tasmania with ATDC, the Australian Capital Territory with ATODA, Queensland with QNADA,South Australia with SANDAS, and Victoria with VAADA.
With a commitment to delivering practical and engaging workshops that build the skills, knowledge, and confidence of the workforce, we’ve provided targeted workshops across a diverse range of topics to peak bodies over the past 15 years, including motivational interviewing, brief interventions, trauma informed care, responding to co-occurring conditions, and advanced counselling techniques.
I benefited highly from this training. This training extended by knowledge base and was the best training I have attended. I left with a sharper focus of case formulation and intervention selection, and a clear suite of ways to improve my practice and facilitate stronger treatment outcomes. I would highly recommend training through 360Edge and would enthusiastically attend future training.
— Inside CBT participant, ATDC, 2018
CEO Professor Nicole Lee delivering trauma informed care training to SANDAS, 2014
Supporting large scale sector transformations
With ATODA, we led a comprehensive review and redesign of Australian Capital Territory withdrawal services. Through extensive consultations with sector staff, medical professionals, and service users, we codesigned innovative, evidence informed models of care to better support people through withdrawal management.
Our collaboration with ATODA extended to addressing complex intersections like domestic and family violence through our work on the Safer Families pilot project developed by ATODA alongside ACT Health.
To support alcohol and other drug services to successfully conduct the Safer Families project, we codesigned an evidence based practice framework and the Domestic and Family Violence Capability Assessment Tool, empowering alcohol and other drug services to better respond to domestic and family violence issues within their communities. We also conducted extensive, targeted training in this area to further support the local alcohol and other drug workforce.
Building capacity across sectors
We played a critical role in building the capacity of alcohol and other drug workers in Queensland with QNADA by developing a comprehensive supervision training package designed to enhance the skills and confidence of supervisors and supervisees across the sector.
This involved providing face to face supervision and training to both supervisors and supervisees and resourcing these staff with guidelines to reinforce their practice skills and strategies. This work ensures ongoing quality and consistency in alcohol and other drug services, a cornerstone for effective care.
In partnership with QNADA and Western Queensland Primary Health Network, we also evaluated capacity building activities aiming to enhance primary healthcare providers' abilities to address alcohol and other drug issues, supporting Western Queensland to bridge critical gaps in care delivery and supporting services to implement evidence based practices effectively.
Over the past 15 years, our close partnerships with peak bodies have strengthened practice, influenced policy, and improved outcomes. We're proud of this collaborative journey and excited for what's still to come.
