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Periodic meetings intended for developing a model, work processes, and tools for future
dissemination
Knowledge research and dissemination (articles, conferences, training sessions)
Policy
Working with government ministries and health funds to achieve recognition of the
importance of an accessible and adapted mental health service specializing in treating
people with Dual Diagnosis
Professional accompaniment of the establishment and operation of additional
community units for treating people with Dual Diagnosis in different parts of the
country.
Working principles
The Dual Diagnosis Unit has a number of guiding working principles:
System-wide view – because of the complexity of the population of people with Dual
Diagnosis, it is not sufficient to relate only to the patients themselves, and it is also
necessary to look at the circles of their life: family, educational / sheltered occupation
staff, housing frameworks, therapeutic and medical entities, welfare entities, and any
other relevant entity.
Partnership with the family and entities in the community – following on from the
system-wide view, there is a partnership among all the relevant entities in the
treatment itself. This partnership will be manifested at all stages of intervention, from
intake and Diagnosis, through the treatment stage, until the case is closed with
recommendations for the future.
Working with a multi-professional team – Dual Diagnosis, by its very definition, relates
to at least two professional disciplines – mental health and developmental disabilities. It
is therefore necessary to have a multi-professional view by the two disciplines, in which
each staff member contributes the unique viewpoint of his or her area of expertise. The
staff works and learns together in order to create an integrated picture of the person
and his or her needs.
Short-term intervention and long-term recommendations – because of the
characteristics of the population, the starting assumption is that it is not possible to
change the nature of the problem, but rather the way of dealing with it. Therefore,
intervention in the unit is for a short period of time, aimed at assessing the person’s
function, providing a focused and time-limited intervention, and forming
recommendations for the long-term aimed at returning treatment to the entities
treating the person in the community.
The capacity building approach – further to the explanation given above, building the
capacity of the entities treating the person increases the ability to cope with the
complexity of Dual Diagnosis within that person’s life support systems.
Learning organization – the team work is carried out according to Peter Senge’s
principles of the learning organization (1991):