Addiction Medicine

The Department of Addiction Medicine at St Vincent's provides medical treatment for drug or alcohol addiction. Our work includes direct patient treatment, research, education/training and policy development. 

Addiction Medicine at St Vincent’s strives to ensure that our clinical knowledge and experience informs public health policy, to achieve a more sophisticated understanding in the community of the nature and treatment of addiction, and to improve the health outcomes for those seeking assistance for drug or alcohol problems.

The science of addiction

Today addiction is widely understood to be a chronic, relapsing neurobiological disease.

Genetic variables, environmental factors, stress, and conditioning effects all contribute to the progression from substance use to addiction and are also recognised to be major factors mediating response to treatment.
Progression from use/abuse to addiction is accompanied by long-term neuroadaptations and these underlie persistent cravings and withdrawal symptoms, increase the risk of relapse, and contribute to the cyclical nature of addiction treatment.

Persons presenting for substance abuse treatment commonly have comorbid mental health problems, and other general health problems that need to be addressed.

Central to the treatment of addiction are three domains:

1. Pharmacotherapy
2. Psychosocial stability
3. Behavioural interventions

Our Services

The following clinical services are delivered or administered from 62 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy 3065.

• Outpatient Clinics - Medical (assessments, secondary consultations, shared care), Counselling
• Consultation/Liaison Service
• Relapse Prevention Groups (for existing and past patients)

• Provision of treatment under the Severe Substance Dependence Treatment Act (SSDTA)  click on link 

Project ECHO (Extending Community Healthcare Outcomes)

ECHO means Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes. Project ECHO is a lifelong learning and guided practice model that revolutionizes medical education and exponentially increases workforce capacity to provide best-practice specialty care and reduce health disparities.

We are using ECHO to bring specialist knowledge and support in opioid management to health practitioners throughout Victoria. We aim to cover all aspects of opioid management including prescription and illicit opioid misuse/abuse and addiction, opioids and addiction in chronic pain management, medication assisted treatments for opioid use disorder (MAT, MATOD, methadone, buprenorphine), overdose, regulations and opioid prescribing, trauma-informed care, dual-diagnosis.

The heart of the ECHO model is its hub-and-spoke knowledge-sharing networks, led by the multidisciplinary team at the Department of Addiction Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne who use multi-point videoconferencing to conduct tele-support for community providers. In this way, primary care doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacotherapy consultants and other clinicians learn to provide excellent specialty care to patients in their own communities.

For more information please contact Amanda Norman - Amanda.Norman@SVHA.org.au

Heat map of Victorian Opioid Management ECHO's reach

Testimonials from ECHO participants:

“Hi Team,
Just giving feedback how much I am enjoying the ECHO sessions. Even though I have been a methadone prescriber for 23 years I have learnt a lot from the sessions. It is also helpful and reassuring to get the Hub's opinions on cases and I feel that my approach has become more systematic to my own patients since engaging with ECHO. This effect is magnified as I am a sort of backup resource about opioids and prescribing in Geelong and near surrounds. So a big THANK YOU and WELL DONE..”
GP, Geelong

“Such a complex case study but the suggested treatment plan was so applicable and the suggestions offered by (the psychiatry registrar) were brilliant and very culturally sensitive …. Overall a very informative and thought provoking session.”
Pharmacotherapy Co-ordinator, Gippsland

ECHO for Pain and Opioid Management (EPOM)

ECHO means Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes. Project ECHO is a lifelong learning and guided practice model that revolutionizes medical education and exponentially increases workforce capacity to provide best-practice specialty care and reduce health disparities.

The heart of the ECHO model is its hub-and-spoke knowledge-sharing networks, led by the multidisciplinary team at the Department of Addiction Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and the Pain Service at the Royal Melbourne Hospital who use multi-point videoconferencing to conduct tele-support for community providers. In this way, primary care doctors, nurse practitioners and other clinicians learn to provide excellent specialty care to patients in their own communities.

The curriculum will cover the following key learning objectives:
• Understand best practice management of patients with chronic pain.
• Understand the interdisciplinary dynamics of managing a patient on long term opioid medication.
• Able to apply a case-based learning approach to optimising assessment and treatment of a patient with chronic pain and opioid dependence.
• Able to safely and effectively prescribe Schedule 8 medications and other drugs of dependence.

For more information about the Pain and Opioid Mangement Echo (EPOM), you can download the flyer here.

Contact

62 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, VIC 3065

Tel: (03) 9231 6940
Fax: (03) 9231 2642

For information about how to make a referral click here.