Capacity-building through competencies for the substance use workforce

Background
Substance use care in Canada is provided by both a regulated and unregulated workforce that come from a variety of backgrounds. While care benefits from providers’ diverse expertise, ranging across medicine, lived/living experience, social services, etc., it can also result in disparities in the provision of equitable, quality services across the country.    
The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) is a national leader on advancing solutions to address substance use health concerns. One of the pillars of CCSA’s work is to enhance the quality of care services. To this end, CCSA has developed a competency framework to promote capacity-building of the workforce, and to provide an evidence-informed way to support standardization of care.  

Methods
The Workforce Competencies were developed through comprehensive reviews of academic and grey literature, as well as best practice clinical guidelines. Valuing all forms of evidence, the competencies are further grounded through extensive consultations and contributions from individuals with lived and living experience, healthcare providers, and leaders.  

Results
The framework includes a) integrated competencies for the substance use and mental health workforce; and b) competencies for prescribers who do not specialize in substance use care, but who are often the first point of contact for individuals seeking support. The behavioural and technical competencies outline the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours necessary to deliver evidence-based, compassionate and empathic integrated care for substance use and co-occurring mental health concerns.   Supporting resources also include implementation tools such as interview guides, performance management templates and job profiles.  
In this workshop, participants will gain the skills to utilize CCSA’s Workforce Competencies through interactive, practice-based learning sessions. In small groups, participants will explore the two core applications of a competency framework: 1) self-evaluation and professional development and 2) leadership and human resource management. 
Workshop participants will gain a practical understanding of how to use the Workforce Competencies as a resource to support, guide, and troubleshoot recruitment, retention, and performance management strategies within their organization. Participants will also learn how to use these tools to support self-evaluation and align professional development with the core competencies of roles within the substance use care sector. 

Conclusion
CCSA’s Workforce Competencies have been used by a multitude of community and federal organizations across the country to standardize clinical practice and interpersonal approaches. Application of this framework ensures consistent, humanistic, person-centered care across a wide range of roles, sectors, contexts, and settings.