Eastern Dual Diagnosis Service (EDDS)

The Eastern Dual Diagnosis Service is one of four specialist dual diagnosis teams funded by the Department of Health as an initiative which aims to support the improvement of responses of mental health and drug treatment services to individuals with both mental illness and substance use problems (dual diagnosis).

Our multidisciplinary team offers a range of specialist expertise and works collaboratively with mental health and alcohol and other drug services across the eastern metropolitan region in:

• Developing the capability of hospital and community based alcohol and drug, and mental health treatment and support services to improve health outcomes of individuals with a dual diagnosis and following a philosophy of ‘no wrong door’ to service access and principles relating to integrated treatment
• Ensuring that the inter-service arrangements between mental health and alcohol and drug services (including the North Eastern Hume rural component) that are developed reflect the initiatives purpose in addressing the gaps and needs in dual diagnosis

To achieve this EDDS provides:

• Secondary and tertiary consultations and limited primary consultations for staff in Clinical Mental Health (CMH), Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support Services (PDRSS), and Alcohol and Other Drug Services (AOD), who provide support and treatment to individuals with a dual diagnosis across adult, youth, and aged services.
• Education and training on dual diagnosis-specific issues, to improve the capabilities of staff working in CMH, PDRS, and AOD services (adult, youth, and aged) in providing integrated assessment, treatment, and recovery.
• Service development focussed on building dual diagnosis capacity for the CMH, PDRSS, and AOD sectors – via a number of mechanisms including our Linkage Meetings, with three groups (Central East, Outer East, and Youth-specific services) running across the eastern metropolitan region which focus on partnership development, dual diagnosis capability, and integrated treatment.

 

EDDS has recently received funding to oversee a joint project with the Family Access Network (FAN) to build the capacity of the youth homelessness sector to better respond to the needs of young people with a dual diagnosis. The single position, based at FAN in Box Hill, provides direct service, secondary consultations, education and training and general capacity building to the youth homelessness sector.

Contact is via FAN on (03) 9890 2673 with enquiries to be directed to the Youth Homelessness Dual Diagnosis Clinician.