Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) services are continually innovating to enhance treatment and support for clients. A key challenge is how to progress an opportunity to reality, and critically to sustain this progress. A traditional reliance on ‘train and hope’ is associated with over 60% of implementation projects failing, the cost of which is demoralised services and lost opportunities for clients and clinicians. Implementation science offers an alternative, using evidence-based methods to identify determinant, process, and evaluation factors that underpin successful implementation. This presentation details how employing implementation science at Lives Lived Well has assisted several successful implementation projects, focusing on facilitation and facilitators. By adopting the practical and accessible strategies offered by implementation science, AOD services can move from hope to confidence when performing implementation projects.
Beyond ‘train and hope’: achieving program sustainability with implementation science
Nick Kerswell | Clinical Implementation Specialist, Lives Lived Well
Nick is a clinical psychologist with experience working across a range of settings in mental health and AOD clinical work. His doctoral thesis research focused on the assessment and treatment of trauma, work which has continued with the UQ LLW Research Group and Lives Lived Well, contributing to implementation projects.
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