\n
![\"White](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/attachment.aspx.jpeg\")
\n
\n Opioid dependency has increased in Australia, with skilled prescribers required to help address the issue.
\n <\/p>\n
\n News<\/p>\n
\n Face-to-face workshops in Victoria will help GPs gain MATOD accreditation and build confidence in opioid dependence treatment.
\n <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n Opioid dependency has increased in Australia, with skilled prescribers required to help address the issue.
\n
<\/p>\n
\n A trio of Victoria-based workshops to help GPs become Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Dependence (MATOD) accredited will be held over the coming months.<\/p>\n
The events, to be held across Melbourne, are designed to provide hands-on learning, at a time when skilled prescribers are \u2018urgently needed\u2019 to combat Australia\u2019s growing opioid crisis.
\n\u00a0
\nDr Anne Saunders, immediate past Chair of the RACGP Victoria Alcohol and Other Drug Committee, will facilitate two of the events and said MATOD is a \u2018really safe and helpful way\u2019 GPs can help their dependent patients.
\n\u00a0
\n\u2018The impact of drug use on our communities is deep and very costly,\u2019 she said.
\n\u00a0
\n\u2018It\u2019s costly in terms of productivity, it\u2019s costly in terms of trauma and fragmentation of families because it\u2019s not only the person who\u2019s using drugs who experiences trauma.
\n\u00a0
\n\u2018It\u2019s very easy to think that \u201csubstance disorder doesn\u2019t affect me, doesn\u2019t affect my family, doesn\u2019t affect my community\u201d, but the reality is that this is a hidden illness that affects so many of the people that we treat every day.
\n\u00a0
\n\u2018If you offer people opiate replacement therapy, you actually bring stabilisation into people\u2019s lives \u2013 there is a great response to this therapy in terms of discontinuation or reduction of ongoing illicit drug use.\u2019
\n\u00a0
\nThe workshops aim to help participants:
\n\u00a0
\n<\/p>\n
\n\tidentify opioid toxicity in a patient requesting a prescription for opioids
\n\trecognise opioid withdrawal in a patient requesting a prescription for opioids
\n\tdecide when opioid use disorder is present in a patient requesting a prescription of opioids
\n\tcompare the formulations of methadone and buprenorphine
\n\tunderstand the Victorian medico-legal context to be able to manage patients with opioid use disorder
\n\tprovide appropriate overdose management advice.
<\/p>\n
\u00a0
newsGP weekly poll
\nAccording to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare<\/a>, there were 57,740 people receiving pharmacotherapy treatment for opioid dependence last year, a 24% rise since 2011.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nBut Dr Saunders said broarder and systemic shifts are needed within healthcare to better support GPs in offering effective addiction treatment.
\n\u00a0
\n\u2018This training takes time and I have never done one of these consults that hasn\u2019t taken me at least half an hour,\u2019 she said.
\n\u00a0
\n\u2018The policy settings of general practice are such that short consults are actually remunerated at a much higher rate per minute than long consults.
\n\u00a0
\n\u2018Which means for any GP to lean into this work, which generally requires an investment of at least a couple of months to a year of long appointments with your patients, we don\u2019t want them to be financially disincentivised to do this work.\u2019
\n\u00a0
\nThe workshops will take place in Melton on 31 October, Pakenham on 7 November, and Lilydale on 5 December. For full details and to register, see the RACGP website<\/a>.
\n\u00a0
\nLog in below to join the conversation.<\/p>\n
\n addiction medicine<\/a> MATOD<\/a> opioid dependency<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n
\n Have you ever found out that a patient has previously failed to disclose their use of GLP-1 medicines to you as their usual GP?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
News
Face-to-face workshops in Victoria will help GPs gain MATOD accreditation and build confidence in opioid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[134,524,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-631187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}