FAQs
CADS provide a range of different services to support people affected by alcohol and other drugs. We have a number of community services offering groups and individual counselling as well as medical services such as opioid treatment and medically managed withdrawal both in-patient and community-based.
We are a harm reduction service so aim to reduce the harms associated with alcohol and other drugs. We support people to change the way they use alcohol and other drugs to reduce harms to the individual, to the family and whanau, and to the wider community.
CADS can offer you a range of options depending on what the issue is and what you are hoping to achieve.
You can access a wide range of written information in our reception areas and online. Please feel free to help yourself to this.
We can help you work out what you want to do and how to do it. Our team can help you develop a plan to make the changes you want to make. This could include attending a group, counselling, reading some material, or accessing one of our specialist services. We will try to match what you need with what we can provide. If we are unable to provide the kind of help you want we can support you get to the right place and people. It’s our job to give you the very best advice, support and direction that we can.
Sometimes it can be hard to know what the problem is or if there really is a problem. Other times people know exactly what the problem is and need support to work out how to deal with it. Our teams can help you work out what the issue is, how you want to change it and then help you make a plan to reduce the harm those problems may be causing.
CADS actively encourage family and other support people to become involved in the service we provide to our clients or to attend in their own right.
If you are concerned about someone els's use of alcohol and other drugs we can offer you support in a number of ways including:
- talking with you on the telephone or face to face about what services CADS provides for you and/or the person you are concerned about
- providing you with information about the effects of alcohol and other drugs
- accessing support for yourself and your family by taking part in our Family whanau and friends group
Your friend or family member might be open to you coming to appointments with them. We encourage you to keep talking with the person you care about.
When you make contact with Community Alcohol and Drug Services (CADS) Auckland, one of our trained alcohol and other drug clinicians will talk with you about your concerns.
Together you will identify the next step. This usually includes having a more in-depth conversation to complete a professional assessment of your current situation. We will give you the most up-to-date information on treatment options and other services that suit your needs. Together we can work out what might be helpful: maybe attending a group or being referred to another part of CADS or another service.
We also offer support and information to friends, family members and health, social and education professionals.
Click here to Email Us now at CADS or call us on 0800-845-1818.
We know how scary it can be to make the first call. We provide one phone number for you to make an appointment to see a counsellor at the CADS clinic nearest you. Call us on 0800 845 1818
Your doctor or health professional can also refer you to CADS.
For media enquiries, please click here.
Please contact Auckland Transport on 09 366 6400 or go to Timetables (at.govt.nz)for information on public transport access to your nearest CADS unit.
At CADS we understand that it can sometimes be really hard to change the way you drink or take drugs. We help you to make those changes by offering you our discreet free support, information, counselling and treatment services.
Many people are concerned that others should not know about their contact with our service, so we take special care to protect the health information you give us. We will talk with you about how we store the information you give us and who has access to it. Brochures about Your Health Information are available in our reception areas; please help yourself to these
Harm reduction, or harm minimisation, refers to a range of intentional practices and public health policies designed to lessen the negative consequences associated with various human behaviours including the use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD).
Harm minimisation is a pragmatic public health and societal welfare-based policy. It accepts without moral judgement the fact that some forms of drug use will probably always occur in our society. It recognises that different approaches are appropriate for different drugs, people and situations.
A harm minimisation approach allows for more readily achievable goals than abstinence so provides a range of treatment options to choose from: people might choose to become alcohol and drug-free or they may choose to use alcohol and drugs in a more controlled and responsible way.
Some people believe harm reduction/ minimisation is condoning or facilitating drug use, and preventing prohibition or abstinence approaches. This is incorrect; harm reduction approaches do not condone or facilitate drug use, nor do they prevent prohibition or abstinence approaches.
CADS offer a range of harm reduction/ minimisation strategies which include education and information especially in our groups and through the educational informational material we provide. We help people identify and modify their potentially harmful use of alcohol and other drugs. The aim is to prevent AOD use problems from getting any worse and causing even further harm. We offer services to people who present with an identifiable drug dependency, who require medically managed withdrawal strategies and/or substitution treatment.
We actively support the work of our harm reduction partners including The NZ Drug Foundation and NZ Needle Exchanges programmes.
We are able to offer placements to students who are studying in Alcohol & Other Drug (AOD) graduate and post graduate courses. When assessing for student placements we look for the following:
- you are enrolled in a Bachelors level or post graduate course
- you have completed AOD papers as part of this course
- A portion of your placement hours can be completed in a group setting
- you are available for a least two days a week on placement if you require 100+ clinical contact hours
- On finishing your course you will have completed the academic qualifications for a professional registration, e.g. DAPAANZ, Social Work.
To apply for a student placement, Email Us Now.
CADS employ staff from a range of professional backgrounds. Most of our clinical staff are Alcohol and Drug practitioners or nurses though we also employ people with other backgrounds such as social work, counselling, and psychology.
All positions available at CADS are advertised through https://waitematadhb.govt.nz
Generally, our preferred candidates for employment have:
- A relevant Bachelor level qualification, e.g., in health or social science
- An alcohol and drug specific qualification
- A relevant professional registration or membership
We welcome people with lived experience to apply.
CADS also employ people into consumer advisory and peer support specialist roles. These positions are advertised through www.seek.co.nz
Alcohol & Drug Specific Qualifications
The education institutions that provide alcohol and drug specific qualifications in Auckland are:
Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
University of Auckland
The National Addiction Centre (Christchurch) and Massey University (Palmerston North) also provide qualifications that can be completed through distance learning.
Professional Registrations or Memberships
We encourage and support staff to be aligned with the professional body that matches their training and career path. For example, nurses will be registered with the Nursing Council of New Zealand, counsellors will be members of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors. Many of our staff are registered with the Addiction Practitioner Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (DAPAANZ).
Check out the DAPAANZ website http://www.dapaanz.org.nz/ for more information.
Auckland Opioid Treatment Service (AOTS) prescribes the Biodone Forte brand of methadone which contains methadone 5mg in 1 ml. It is colourless, sugarless and contains no additives other than methadone powder and sterile water.
We aim to see people within 2 weeks of their first contact with us though it depends on the availability of doctors and how many people are seeking treatment at that time. The nurse at your local AOTS unit will be able to tell you if there are any wait times and how long that might be.
In NZ the buprenorphine:naloxone preparation is a sublingual tablet that is placed under the tongue and it dissolves in up to 10 minutes depending on the dose size. It has no/little effect if it is swallowed.
The naloxone has been added to deter injecting. It has no effect when used as prescribed (ie sublingually/under the tongue) but if injected the naloxone can put you into withdrawal as it overrides the buprenorphine.
If you are already on methadone you can transfer to bup. Talk to your doctor about how to do this.
CADS invites feedback including complaints as its one of the ways to review and improve our service.
There is always someone you can complain to. Any staff member can take a complaint. If you feel put off by the first staff member you speak to, don't be deterred - there are others in the service who are available to assist you.
Your complaint doesn’t have to be in writing. You can tell somebody you want to make a complaint and they can record this for you.
You may find it helpful to speak with one of our consumer team; they can hear your concerns and help you work out your options. They can also outline the complaints process for you and submit a complaint on your behalf if that is your choice.
You can make a complaint at this website: go to Contact/Make a complaint
You don't have to give your name when making a complaint though there are some downsides to this: it means the service may not then have all the relevant information it needs to find out what happened and why, and you don't get to find out the service's response to your complaint.
So what happens with your complaint?
- You will receive acknowledgement that your complaint has been received within 2 working days
- Your complaint goes to the manager of the service you are complaining about
- The manager has 14 days to investigate and respond to your complaint. If you are a CADS client, the investigation may include reviewing your file and talking to you and/ or any staff involved
- If it's going to take longer than 14 days the manager will let you know
- Their response to you will generally include a summary of your complaint, the findings of their investigation, and what they're going to do as a result of your complaint
- If you're unhappy with the outcome of your complaint you can write to the WDHB Chief Executive Officer (CEO). You can also contact the Health and Disability Commissioner
- If you don't want to communicate through the WDHB process you can approach the Health and Disability Advocacy Service and/or the Health and Disability Commissioner's Office.
Suggestion or complaint?
- If you have a concern but don't want to make a complaint, or you want to comment on something, feel free to contact any members of the Consumer Team on 09 815 5830, or use the feedback/suggestion boxes in each unit.
The information that you provide to CADS is treated respectfully and with the utmost care. It is stored in a password protected electronic file that can be accessed across mental health and addiction services by health professionals involved in your care
Your information may also be shared with non-clinical staff (e.g. peer support specialists, employment consultants, Smokefree coordinators) and other healthcare professionals (e.g. your GP, specialist, midwife) who are involved in your care. At times we may access some of your other health information when it is relevant to your treatment e.g. lab results, medications, and discharge summaries if you have been in
hospital.
Anonymous health information is also used to measure and improve CADS’ performance (via clinical audit, research and evaluation) and contributes to national health information.