AOD: new self-assessments across the sector

An area we’ve been focusing on recently is state and national Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) standards. AOD treatment providers deliver important services across a broad cross-section of the Australian society. 

Over the last twelve months, we have incorporated a number of new AOD self-assessments into SPP.  Each of the three standards detailed below will support providers to implement the National Quality Framework for Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services.

WANADA Alcohol and other Drug and Human Services Standard

We mentioned the WANADA Standard in our previous AOD blog post.

Western Australian Network of Alcohol & other Drug Agencies (WANADA) supports services to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and communities affected by alcohol and other drugs, including community drug services, therapeutic communities and residential rehabilitation centres, sobering-up shelters, harm reduction services, and counselling services.

The WANADA Alcohol and other Drug and Human Services Standard was developed to ensure that safe, quality and evidence informed approaches are used for treatment and support in alcohol and other drug services, and human services.

The WANADA Standard has a strong focus on culturally responsive ways of working, and flexibility, which allows it to be followed and applied by a diverse range of human services. The WANADA Standard emphasises the primacy of First Nations people, and requires responsiveness across a service to the needs of First Nations and culturally and linguistic diverse people.

Our self-assessment on the WANADA Standard helps organisations work through each Performance Objective, with links to relevant WANADA resources and Interpretive Guides provided. 

ATCA Standard for Therapeutic Communities and Residential Rehabilitation Services

The Australasian Therapeutic Communities Association (ATCA) provides a range of services including detoxification units, family, gambling and mental health counselling, childcare facilities, family support programs, exit housing and outreach services.

The ATCA Standard for Communities and Residential Rehabilitation Services, 3rd edition, was released in June 2019. This version of the Standard has been modified to reincorporate the domains of governance and financial management, to allow member agencies to be certified/accredited under a single Standard if that was appropriate for their organisation.

We have updated the self-assessment for the ATCA Standard to meet the requirements of the revised Standard, incorporating the key areas of continuous improvement, and governance and management.

NSW Clinical Care Standards for Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment

The most recent AOD  accreditation that we’ve added to our platform, the NSW Clinical Care Standards for Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment were developed by the NSW Department of Health in 2020. The Clinical Care Standards outline the core elements of care that underpin treatment within NSW AOD treatment services. These standards apply to all drug and alcohol service treatment types and locations. They detail the foundational elements of care, support clinical decision-making and complement other sources of information that guide the delivery of high-quality and safe treatment.

We have created two self-assessments that are based on the ‘Service Review Checklists’, which are available in the Readiness Toolkit for the standards.

National Quality Framework

In an earlier blog post on this topic, we discussed the National Quality Framework for Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services, which sets a nationally consistent quality benchmark for AOD treatment providers. The National Quality Framework is applicable to all AOD providers, including those that receive government funding and providers not receiving government funding.

There are a number of accepted accreditations available to providers who wish to comply with the National Quality Framework. SPP hosts self-assessments for many of these accreditation standards, including:

  • Alcohol and Other Drug Human Service Standard (WANADA)
  • Australian Service Excellence Standards (ASES)
  • Human Services Quality Framework Queensland (HSQF)
  • ISO9001: Quality Management Systems
  • National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS)
  • QIC Health and Community Services Standards (QIC)

Other standards in SPP which can be used in conjunction with one of the above accreditation standards include:

  • Victorian Human Services Standards
  • ATCA Standard
  • Tasmanian Quality and Safety Standards
  • National Standards for Mental Health Services (NSMHS)

Is your organisation ready to begin self-assessment?

For more information about the Alcohol and Other Drug self-assessments and resources on our platform, sign up for SPP!

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SPP has been a great resource for understanding and mapping Standards, preparing for Audits and also sourcing resources for policy development. I would recommend it to other organisations to complement their quality and compliance work. Information can be easily shared, and evidence gathered to support all work done.
Community mental health service provider, Victoria
I like the speed and ease of SPP, I love how it maps multiple standards. It’s so convenient, I couldn’t imagine the nightmare to do the work manually. The templates are great for gap analysis. SPP resource templates are great for implementing new policies in the office and for what we do day to day.
Large provider of settlement services to immigrants, New South Wales
I have found the SPP system amazing. It provides a structured way to work through the standards and then provide a succinct report on the evidence being provided for a surveyor to view how we meet the standard. I used this in our recent accreditation survey, the auditor was very impressed, AND we are now accredited for ISO 9001. Thanks again. A great system.
Provider of diverse range of health programs, Queensland
We really like SPP. We use the resources in the Reading Room and couldn't have passed our accreditation with flying colours without SPP.
Advocacy, support and education provider, Australian Capital Territory
Everything is going well with SPP. It’s helped us through three lots of accreditation over the past nine months plus some internal auditing, so I’m very glad to have had it to assist us through the processes.
Large regional multi-service provider, Victoria