Use of telehealth by Australian AOD organisations

The issue

  • There was a rapid uptake of telehealth services (via phone or video call) across the health system in response to COVID-19 restrictions, including within the AOD sector.
  • Many organisations have continued to offer appointments via telehealth.
  • Telehealth may reduce barriers to attendance for some AOD clients, but may also pose challenges related to technical difficulties, privacy, and building rapport.
  • AOD sector stakeholders are seeking more guidance on when and how telehealth can be used to deliver effective AOD services.

 

What did we do?

We conducted three studies to examine how telehealth can be used to deliver AOD counselling optimally:

  1. Interviews with 20 senior staff members from 17 Australian AOD non-government and government treatment providers with experience offering counselling via telehealth and face-to-face.
  2. Interviews with 22 clients who had received AOD counselling via telehealth and face-to-face in Australia.
  3. Comparative analysis of 15 guides for delivering counselling via telehealth in AOD or related fields from high-income English-speaking countries.

 

Project outputs

Using telehealth for AOD counselling – a guide for Australian AOD treatment organisations

Publication:

Bartram A, Ahad M, Long A, Lubman DI, Morrison E, Rundle J, Lee N, Wilson S, Bowden J. “It’s hard to look past the accessibility”: Service provider perspectives on implementing telehealth for alcohol and other drug counselling as a health service innovation. Drug and Alcohol Review. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.70000

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge and thank reference group members for their considered guidance on this project: April Long, SMART Recovery; Dan Lubman, Turning Point; Dean Ebejer, Alcohol and Other Drugs Branch, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing; Ele Morrison, AIVL; Jill Rundle, WANADA; Nicole Lee, Hello Sunday Morning; Scott Wilson, ADAC. This project was funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.