We provide guest lectures to tertiary education institutions and education, training, and consultancy to a variety of other organisations. Our education and training sessions can be delivered in your workplace and individually tailored to the needs of your team.

The credibility of the education and consultancy we offer to other agencies is founded upon our flexible, adaptive, client-centered and client-directed model of service delivery.

Each workshop comes with a fee of $150 per hour or part thereof.

For more information contact Paul Dessauer (08) 9325 8387 or email ceo@harmreductionwa.org

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Below is a list of some of the most commonly requested sessions from mental health agencies and frontline AOD services:

 

Working with Difficult or Challenging Behaviour; (Principles of De-escalation). 

The objective is to develop participants’ attitudes, self-awareness, knowledge, and practical skills in anticipating, preventing, and managing aggression or other challenging behaviour, and in engaging with and responding safely, respectfully, and effectively to people who are anxious, intoxicated, or experiencing delusions or psychosis. This session is designed for front line workers who regularly deal with difficult or challenging behaviours but who work in non-coercive roles, and can be tailored to suit the specific roles and environment(s) your team works in.

Content includes;

→Relevant WA law, evidence base and theory of awareness and stress in crisis; (to inform best practice).

→Risk; (practices and systems to improve awareness, assessment, and management of risk).

→Understanding and managing stress response; (in self and others).

→Preventative measures; (behavioural and environmental measures to reduce risk).

→Working with people who are experiencing acute distress, intoxication, or psychosis.

→De-escalation skills; (verbal and non-verbal).

→Worst case scenarios; (distancing, protective strategies, and immediate response to potentially violent incidents).

→Aftermath; (incident reporting, support, self-care and well-being).

 

Responding to drug-related incidents (including opioid overdose) as a first aider.

This session is designed for front line workers who may have to respond as first-aiders to incidents involving drug overdose or toxicity, and to accidental injury that may be associated with alcohol and other drug use. This session is not an accredited First Aid course and is not intended to replace accredited training; rather it aims to build participant's knowledge, skills, and confidence in applying first aid and basic life support skills in drug-related scenarios. Previous training in First Aid is a desirable but not essential criteria. Participants who are likely to witness opioid overdose can be supplied with naloxone devices at completion of the training.

Content includes;

→Safely responding to a drug-affected or unconscious individual in public space.

→Safely managing bystanders and managing the scene.

→Responding as a first-aider to common accidental injuries associated with alcohol or other drug intoxication.

→Responding as a first-aider to physical health emergencies that may be provoked by drug overdose, toxicity or withdrawal.

→How to recognise the signs of opioid overdose and how to apply DRSABCD to respond to overdose.

→How and when to administer naloxone to reverse an opioid overdose.

 

Current and Emerging Trends in Illicit Drug Use

Ice Epidemic? Silk Road? Novel substances like Kronic, Bath Salts, and Flakka? Krokodil? Killer batches of heroin? Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs? Go beyond the headlines to find out what’s really happening with changing drug markets in Australia. This session includes up-to-date stats on drug use and a little bit of myth-busting to provide an evidence-based overview of current and emerging drug trends, and the implications of these changes in terms of drug policy generally, and for front-line services in particular.

 

The Ins and Outs of Injecting Drug Use

A comprehensive overview of strategies designed to reduce the level of harm associated with non-medical injecting drug use. Discusses blood-borne-viruses, non-viral infections and injury, needle and syringe programs, safe disposal, vein-care and safer injection practices, harms associated with IV misuse of pharmaceutical drugs, and the use of filtering devices. (Includes practical demonstration of safer injection techniques and use of wheel filters).

 

Everything you ever wanted to know about methamphetamine, (but were too paranoid to ask…)

This session focuses on methamphetamine; where it comes from, how it works, why people take it, and what harms it can cause. It discusses acute and chronic physical and mental problems that are associated with methamphetamine use, treatment options for methamphetamine dependence, and pragmatic harm reduction strategies for people who use “Ice” and other psychostimulant drugs.

→Behavioral and psychological effects

→Prevalence, facts & figures

→Risk factors for Methamphetamine toxicity

→Recognising toxicity or drug induced psychosis

→Harm reduction and First Aid responses

 

Understanding Drugs and Mental Health

→Issues for people experiencing co-occurring disorders

→Understanding the relationship between drugs and mental health

→Drug Interactions between psychotropic medications, commonly prescribed medicines & illicit drugs

→Harm Reduction treatment and referral options

 

Cannabis, Synthetic Cannabinoids and Mental Health

→Cannabis and mental health - what do we really know?

→Synthetic cannabinoids – how do they work, and what are the risks?

→Prevalence, and who is using synthetic cannabis?

→Harm reduction responses - policy implications