Peer Treatment Support
Person centred peer based case management service
Covid-19
About Covid-19
CAHMA supported its community through the outbreak of Covid-19. We designed and ran workshops on how to maintain health and safety whilst still being an active substance user, and how to manage a forced lockdown if you have a substance dependency issue. CAHMA also collaborated with ACT Health in the provision of peer support and the procurement of basic necessities for drug users in mandatory quarantine, in particular, supporting the Ragusa quarantine facility for several months during 2021.
Demonstrated Success
During the mandatory lockdown periods in 2020 and 2021 CAHMA provided basic necessities and food items to 50+ clients, with some clients visited daily to ensure that their basic needs were being met. A brokerage fund for technological assistance was also administered by CAHMA in collaboration with the Ted Noffs Foundation, providing phones and other technological means of communication to over 100 isolated clients. CAHMA also provided two full time employees to the ACT Health quarantine facilities: Ragusa and Ainslie village, for the duration of their operation. CAHMA staff provided vital frontline peer support, food and basic necessities to some of Canberra’s most vulnerable people during what was and continues to be an unprecedented health crisis.
