In as little as 10 minutes, ED patients with drug and alcohol-related issues can now access a host of interventional treatment and long-term support services, thanks to the launch of the PAH’s first Drug and Alcohol Brief Intervention Team (DABIT).
Developed as an expansion of the 2016 Logan Hospital initiative, DABIT provides individualised assessment, intervention, relapse prevention, harm minimisation, and outpatient referral services, with five CNCs and four CNs working across Logan and PA Hospitals, and includes in-reach support to Redland Hospital as needed.
With 25 years’ experience in Addiction Services, DABIT CNC Toni Wilkens passionately advocates for better health care access of drug and alcohol services.
“Drug and alcohol services are still largely stigmatised even within the hospital system, so we play a really big role in terms of patient advocacy.
“Our goal is to provide that connection and make the transition much easier for people with drug and alcohol issues to access health care, and then to be able to access health care outside of the hospital as well.
“The transition is key, because what often happens is people will leave hospital and they won't engage in community services, but if we're there making that referral and ensuring that the transition happens, people are more likely to get help outside of the hospital. It's all part of trying to prevent re-presentations to the ED.”
Toni says the team’s collective experience, passion and strong communication are fundamental to their success as a multidisciplinary service, but their priority remains with patient outcomes.
“We are constantly debriefing, constantly weighing up did we do everything we could do for that patient? what might we have done differently? should we have thought about this or that? because we want to make sure each patient gets the best outcome.
“If I can make someone feel positive and reassured that, while they have a drug and alcohol problem, they're here in the hospital system getting good care, then that's what really matters.”
Getting the word out about the new service across PAH, Toni says, is paramount.
“I want every single nurse and doctor and every single allied health person at PAH to know that there's a drug and alcohol service here that they can refer patients to, and I want to be able to pick up every single referral that we get.”
The service is funded by the Queensland government’s Better Care Together initiative.