People who work in the substance use and addictions field face unique challenges. They are expected to provide timely and effective services in a demanding and fast-changing environment. Understanding the challenges that healthcare workers face is essential to supporting them. For these reasons, CCSA conducts research and develops targeted materials to support professional development in the field.
What Is Workforce Development?
Workforce development is about helping staff to learn and improve their skills. It helps them gain knowledge and understanding to do their jobs well and continually improve the services they deliver. Workforce development is based acquiring workforce competencies. Behavioural competencies help to identify attitudes and behaviours that are appropriate to the role. Technical competencies are used to identify and develop the knowledge and skills needed to do the job.
Workers in substance use and addictions field need support and resources to help them learn and grow in their professional roles. Workforce competencies provide a framework for assessing their current skill set and identifying what their ongoing learning needs are.
At present, we are in the process of updating our resources to reflect changes in language and practice.