The project's primary aim was to equip healthcare practitioners with essential addiction treatment competencies and techniques, effectively addressing current training needs and gaps among professionals to ultimately contribute to a reduction in illicit drug use. This involved specifically identifying and bridging disparities between available and required addiction training by thoroughly exploring existing programs, assessing the precise training needs of both professional and non-professional healthcare providers, and highlighting crucial components for more effective curricula. Furthermore, the project aimed to provide actionable recommendations for comprehensive training program development, strengthen the professional identity of illicit drug addiction counselors through an innovative Vocational Education and Training (VET) curriculum, and offer an accessible e-learning platform as an open educational resource to advance addiction counseling skills.
The project was initiated to address clear and widespread gaps in structured addiction training for healthcare practitioners, which currently makes it challenging to develop a sufficient number of skilled professionals needed to reduce the harm from drug use. Specifically, we aimed to tackle the current informal approach to professional development opportunities, which often aren't meeting the changing needs of healthcare workers. By thoroughly assessing current training and identifying critical gaps through reviews and discussions with stakeholders, the project sought to clearly define and then bridge the gap between what training is available and what is urgently required. This was done by studying existing programs, carefully assessing the specific training needs of both professional and non-professional healthcare workers, and finally developing a new, competency-based transnational vocational training curriculum designed to improve addiction counseling skills and help create better, more effective training programs in this field.