Community Alcohol and Drugs Service/Pregnancy and Parental Service
Purpose
The Community Alcohol and Drug Services (CADS) Pregnancy and Parental Service (PPS) is a multi disciplinary team which offers:
· interventions
· long term case management
· and service coordination
to socially marginalised substance using parents (with a child under the age of three) and pregnant
women with the goal of improving health outcomes and reducing risk to themselves and their children.
This client group typically may be poorly engaged with services for a number of reasons including poverty, poor access to transport and fear of stigma and judgement (and subsequent involvement of child welfare agencies).
Periods of engagement may vary from consultation and brief intervention to long term intensive case management which may continue for years. Services are provided by a multi disciplinary team across a number of settings including home visiting, outpatient antenatal clinics, CADS units and hospital settings.
Composition
Clinical Team Leader, Addiction Specialist Doctor, 5 nurse/caseworkers, psychiatrist, psychologist, consumer liaison and peer support worker.
Nurse/Caseworker Roles
The nurse/caseworker roles are broad based and autonomous. They carry out a wide variety of functions including:
· comprehensive assessments
· liaison and consultation with stakeholders
· advocacy
· psycho education
· health screening
· referral.
Coordination of care is an important aspect of the nurse/caseworker role as due to the complex nature of client cases, it is usual, over time, for multiple services and agencies to be involved.
Goals
The team aim to use individualised assessment to identify treatment goals with each client. These vary immensely and are client driven. Areas addressed are physical and mental health, child health, parenting and advocacy relating to children, education and childcare. Relationship and addictions treatment are also made available.
Referral
Fax Referral Form to (09) 815 5851
Or phone (09) 486 8920 ext 5123 or ext 5119