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Illicit Drugs

Substance Misuse Service Delivery Grants Fund

The Substance Misuse Service Delivery Grants Fund provides a flexible funding pool for services that treat substance misuse, including programs that target Indigenous Australians.

The objective of the fund is to better promote and support treatment services across Australia to provide better outcomes for individuals and communities affected by alcohol and drug misuse.

The fund priority areas are:

• Supporting non-government drug and alcohol treatment services to deliver quality, evidence based services and build capacity to effectively identify and treat coinciding mental illness and substance misuse (comorbidity) through activities such as workforce training, front line service delivery, education, development of partnerships with the broader health sectors, and dissemination of best practice policies and procedures that support the identification and management of clients experiencing comorbidity
• Assisting Indigenous communities to provide service delivery in alcohol and other drug treatment through
  • delivery of an Indigenous alcohol and other drug workforce
  • improving health outcomes through education programs and
  • developing quality evidence based and culturally secure resources around substance misuse for Indigenous communities
• Supporting those services targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to increase the effectiveness of, and access to, drug and alcohol treatment and rehabilitation services, including those in rural and remote areas
• Reducing the prevalence and impact of petrol sniffing by continuing to support the supply of low aromatic fuel to existing sites and expanding the roll out to sites in the Top End of the Northern Territory, East Kimberley in Western Australia and the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York regions of Queensland
• Supporting people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, including improving the capacity of treatment services to deliver culturally appropriate care, and providing people from CALD backgrounds with access to treatment services and
• Supporting the development and implementation of a range of social marketing campaigns.

List of organisations currently allocated funding under the Substance Misuse Service Delivery Grants Fund

Funding rounds

In 2011, through a competitive funding process, the department invited the alcohol and drugs sector to submit applications for funding of proposals that promote and support drug and alcohol treatment services.

Guidelines for the most recent funding round (2011)

It is expected that the department will release the next funding round for the fund, beyond 2015, at the end of 2014.

Additionally, work will soon commence with alcohol and other drug peak bodies to help develop the capacity of the sector to participate in grants processes, with a focus on strengthening capacity in the preparation of grant applications and in meeting obligations under funding agreements.

Review of drug and alcohol prevention and treatment services

The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing will undertake a strategic, whole of system review of the drug and alcohol prevention and treatment services sector. This will build on the National Drug Strategy 2010-15 and will consider projects, reviews, frameworks and evaluations currently being undertaken by governments and within the sector.

It is intended that the review will achieve the following:

• clarity as to the range of services currently funded, their distribution and the demographic groups targeted by these services
• a common understanding amongst governments and the sector of current and future service needs and where there may be service gaps, either in relation to service type, geographic area and/or demographic groups
• clarity as to the type and timing of drug and alcohol funding activities undertaken by governments
• the development of a resource/tools to help focus future government funding activities to ensure existing levels of resources (and any growth funding) are used as efficiently and effectively as possible to deliver quality, sustainable drug and alcohol services that respond to the needs of individuals, families and communities.

The findings of the review will identify ways for governments to work collaboratively and better plan for the future delivery of drug and alcohol services and improved treatment outcomes.

Page last reviewed: 22 March 2013