About

Endorsed by the following professional bodies:

• General Practice Mental Health Standards Collaboration (GPMHSC): Level One Mental Health Skills Training
• Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP): 30 QA&CPD points (Activity number 728735)
• Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM): 10 Professional Development Points
  (Activity number EEACR-0008-ADGP)
• Australian Psychological Society: 6 Generalist Professional Development points (Activity number 06-102)
• Royal College of Nursing, Australia: 6 Continuing Nurse Education points

Although not endorsed by other professional bodies at this stage, other health professionals may also find the training package useful and informative.

Introducing Managing the Mix

“Your Mental Health and Alcohol: Managing the Mix” training program is aimed at helping GPs and other clinicians treat people with comorbid alcohol misuse and common mental health problems.

The principle target audience of this training is GPs. However, comorbid alcohol misuse and high prevalence mental health problems present frequently in both general practice and a range of other health and social care settings. This training package is therefore also relevant and useful to a host of clinicians, including psychologists, nurses, drug and alcohol and social workers.

Managing the Mix is focussed on increasing awareness of the burden of disease associated with alcohol misuse and common mental health comorbidities. The Managing the Mix training program was developed by the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation (AER Foundation), the Australian Divisions of General Practice (ADGP), the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and the Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA).

This training was funded by DVA and the AER Foundation.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of the Managing the Mix training program participants should be more:

• able to state current prevalence rates of alcohol problems and their associated comorbidities
• aware of Australia’s alcohol policies and guidelines
• able to identify features of unsafe alcohol use and associated common mental health disorders
• able to diagnose patients with an alcohol problem
• able to use screening tools and interview techniques to identify patients with alcohol and psychological risk
• confident to provide non-pharmacological treatments for alcohol and mental health comorbidities
• able to develop, implement and review an appropriate management plan
• aware of community health services that are available to assist in the treatment of alcohol and psychological problems
• confident to treat patients with alcohol problems

Scope of Managing the Mix

The Managing the Mix training program is a 6 hour training program designed to assist GPs and other clinicians treat people with comorbid alcohol misuse and common mental health problems.

Managing the Mix:

• will not focus on the most disabling comorbidities such as psychoses, personality and eating disorders
• will not emphasize a categorical diagnostic approach
• will not pretend that the evidence base is good
• will not cover everything to do with alcohol, anxiety, depression and somatic problems
• will not argue that specialist services or GPs have the capacity or competencies to address all these problems.

Instructions

An outline of the Managing the Mix online education package is provided on the next screen.

There are eight sessions in total and each of these sessions must be completed successfully before a candidate proceeds to the next session.

Participants Please Note: GPs’ attendances are submitted electronically to RACGP or ACRRM, as selected by these participants. If GPs wish to register for Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care, they should attach their certificate of completion to their application and send to GPMHSC. Other participants should submit their certificate of completion as proof of attendance to their relevant professional body, as endorsed above.

Sessions 2-7 include a number of assessment questions as a measure of your understanding of the presented material. You will need to answer more than half of these questions correctly in order to proceed to the next session.

If you do not successfully complete a session or if for other reasons you do not complete the session (e.g. run out of time, computer connection disrupted) you will be able to restart that session without having to commence the entire Managing the Mix again.

There is no limit on the number of times you can attempt to successfully complete a session. Between sessions, participants are encouraged to complete the recommended activities in their clinical practice settings.

Education Menu Outline

Session 1: Pre education questionnaire
Session 2: Introduction (1 hr)
Session 3: Mental Health Assessment and Alcohol Screening (1 hr)
Session 4: Mental Health Plan Part A: treating alcohol problems (1 hr)
Session 5: Mental Health Plan Part B: treating mental health comorbidities (1 hr)
Session 6: Mental Health Plan Part C: treating mental health comorbidities (1 hr)
Session 7: Reviewing, referring and coordinating (1 hr)
Session 8: Post education questionnaire