This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to assist offenders to identify their need to change drug and alcohol behaviour and support offenders to reach their goals.

Assistance may take the form of:

• building trust and rapport
• personal planning
• referral to program
• referral to specialist support
• advocacy with other services and with family and community support
• responding to emergencies
• giving constructive and supportive feedback
• maintaining professional confidentiality.

An individual may work in generic offender management programs with offenders with a range of behaviour profiles and in the context of different levels and nature of risks, or they may work in specialist programs with offenders with only one form of offending behaviour or risk management requirement.

A person undertaking this role would normally work autonomously with support from a range of established sources. The role is complex, drawing upon the individual’s extracting, extrapolating, and inferencing processes.

The skills and knowledge described in this unit must be applied within the legislative, regulatory and policy environment in which they are carried out. Organisational policies and procedures must be consulted and adhered to, particularly those related to interactions with offenders and duty of care.

No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to unit at the time of publication.