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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Med.

Sec. Healthcare Professions Education

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1512703

This article is part of the Research TopicInsights in Healthcare Professions Education: 2025View all 6 articles

A review of individual multidisciplinary team roles in alcohol and other drugs

Provisionally accepted
Xuan  YeXuan Ye1Leighlan  PhillipsLeighlan Phillips2,3Caity  MorrisonCaity Morrison3,4,5Jo  ZhuangJo Zhuang2Brit  ChapmanBrit Chapman6Hannah  PortogalloHannah Portogallo4Michael  HodgeMichael Hodge4Jo  LindenJo Linden4Antigone  BranchflowerAntigone Branchflower3,4Craig  HarveyCraig Harvey3,4Robert  M LundinRobert M Lundin2,3,4,5*
  • 1Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  • 2Mildura Base Public Hospital, Mildura, Victoria, Australia
  • 3Academic Regional and Rural Addictions Network, Geelong, Australia
  • 4Barwon Health, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
  • 5Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
  • 6Harm Reduction Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) usage remains high globally and in Australia and results in a high amount of morbidity and mortality in our community. The Australian AOD workforce comprises a highly diverse range of healthcare professionals. Since medical doctors and AOD roles without specific credentials have already been covered in the literature, this review summarises on the other direct patient facing roles in the AOD multidisciplinary team. We focused on harm reduction workers, peer workers, social workers, pharmacists, occupational therapists, psychologists, nurses and nurse practitioners. The findings of this review show that previous non-specific roles such as peer and harm reduction workers are developing into their distinct disciplines with their own specific training. Experienced clinicians in their field such as nurse practitioners and senior pharmacists are given increasingly more scope of practice that aligns with medical practitioners. However, there is still limited research to some established disciplines such as the role occupational therapy and social work. Future research should focus on how these roles can be fully utilised in the AOD multidisciplinary team.

Keywords: Alcohol and other drugs, Multidisciplinary team, Peer work, Social Work, Nursing, Pharmacy, Occupational Therapy, Harm Reduction

Received: 17 Oct 2024; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Ye, Phillips, Morrison, Zhuang, Chapman, Portogallo, Hodge, Linden, Branchflower, Harvey and Lundin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Robert M Lundin, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

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