Competencies in Action
CCSA offers competencies-based resources and tools to support Canada’s integrated substance use health and mental health (SUMH) workforces. They outline the technical and behavioural skills, attitudes and behaviours most relevant to working in the SUMH field across a range of roles, sectors and workplace settings.
The impact of CCSA’s competencies framework is far reaching. The following impact statements highlight how CCSA’s competencies tools have helped partners enhance workforce development and service quality.
Linking Workforce Development to Strategic Goals
Marika Sandrelli, Strategic Lead at Fraser Health in British Columbia, used the competencies to develop a workforce self-assessment tool, setting the standard for the organization to achieve its strategic vision. The tool helps to identify training needs, informing learning plans, promoting engagement, facilitating cross-training, and strengthening internal mentoring and coaching capacity. By embedding CCSA’s competencies framework into professional development, the organization ensures that workforce growth is directly connected to its overarching goals. Marika underscores this impact:
This really supports our leveraging [of] this competency framework to link every individual in our workforce that's doing professional development to our organizing, our strategic vision for our services. Like, what do we prioritize? What's important to us? Where do we see ourselves going? How do we show up in the lives of people who are suffering?
By integrating competencies in this way, Fraser Health is fostering a skilled workforce that is aligned with its mission and the needs of the communities it serves.
Establishing National Standards Through Competencies
Dorothy Henneveld, Clinical Supervisor with Alouette Addiction Services, also in British Columbia, describes how competencies play a critical role in informing policy and establishing national standards for the substance use workforce in Canada:
There are huge differences from province to province around how people respond to substance use issues. A key unconscious benefit of the competencies is that it articulates a clear kind of policy response to how we do this work and what’s important — being trauma informed, working from a case management perspective around bringing other people in the room who are also working with individuals who are struggling. I wouldn’t underestimate the importance of the competencies as creating a baseline for how we do this work in this country.
By providing a national baseline, the competencies establish clearer standards and improve co-ordinated care across Canada.
Bringing Consistency to Performance Evaluation
Heather Elliott, Director of Quality Improvement and Professional Practice at Canadian Mental Health Association Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services, used the competencies to develop a performance management tool off of the competency-based evaluation. The tool provides a clear, transparent, equitable and consistent mechanism for performance evaluation and identifying training needs. She explains how the competencies help to bring standardization to the field:
Having these competencies come out of a national level is so critical because when it comes to addiction and mental health, [there is no] professional body governing us to say, “these are the standards, and this is what you need to be meeting.”
Integrate the Competencies in Your Organization
CCSA’s Workforce Competencies offer an evidence-informed approach to ensuring services are provided consistently across diverse backgrounds and settings in the substance use health field. By bringing essential standardization and accountability, these competencies set a clear, unified bar for excellence in substance use health across Canada.
Start using CCSA’s competencies today to build a more consistent, accountable and high-quality substance use health workforce across Canada.
If you are planning on implementing the competencies or have begun implementing the competency framework, feel free to email our team at competencies@ccsa.ca for questions or support.