Supporting People Who Experience Co-Existing Mental Health and Addiction Problems

Meeting the needs of people with co-existing mental health and addiction problems is a challenge faced by many mental health and addiction services and providers. A compounding factor has been the separation of mental health and addiction services which has meant that many people with co-existing mental health and addiction problems have fallen through the cracks between services or had issues not recognized or responded to, leading to poor health outcomes. This chapter describes the approach taken by New Zealand's workforce development centers to support services to improve responsiveness and workforce capability to work with people with co-existing mental health and addiction problems. International research on implementation is briefly summarized before discussion about the impact of the national approach and the barriers to implementation that have emerged. Recommendations for next steps conclude this chapter.