Recommendation 36

What the Royal Commission said

The Royal Commission’s Final Report recognised the need to integrate mental health and alcohol and other drug support. It calls for a new statewide service for people living with mental illness and substance use or addiction.

The statewide service will:

• lead research into mental illness and substance use or addiction
• support education and training activities for workforce in these sectors
• provide specialist treatment and care to people with the most complex support needs.
• provide expert advice to support the mental health and alcohol and other drugs (AOD) workforce.

The Royal Commission also recommends increasing the number of addiction specialists in Victoria. We will work with the Commonwealth Government to explore opportunities for funded trainee positions for addiction specialists.

The statewide service will support Recommendation 35 of the Royal Commission. Recommendation 35 calls for all Mental Health and Wellbeing Services to provide integrated treatment, care and support. This will improve outcomes for people living with mental illness and substance use or addiction.

What are the opportunities?

The Royal Commission’s Final Report outlines the need to develop a statewide service that:

• supports best practice service delivery
• upskills the workforce to support people living with mental illness and substance use or addiction
• works with the Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing to meet research and workforce capability goals
• provides expert care to people with the most complex support needs
• provides expert advice to workforce in Local Mental Health and Wellbeing Services, Area Mental Health and Wellbeing Services and alcohol and other drug services.

What are we doing?

We are working with our partners to deliver the following projects.

Establish a new statewide service

Design and develop the statewide service. The service will support the transition to integrated care by the end of 2022. It will also support increased workforce capability.

The service will be built on the foundations of the Victorian Dual Diagnosis Initiative.

Establish addiction specialist services

New addiction specialist services will provide direct services to Mental Health and Wellbeing Services. The services will be available across eight Victorian regions and support workforce expansion. This means people will not need to travel far to access specialised treatment, care and support.