The Can Do Initiative:  Managing Mental Health and Substance Use in General Practice is a national initiative, funded through the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing as part of the National Comorbidity Initiative.

This new initiative, coordinated by the Australian Divisions of General Practice (ADGP) is currently in the development phase, working in collarboration with the Divisions Network and with advice from an Advisory Committee.

The initiative promotes a "Can Do" approach to general practice to meet the challenge of mental health and substance use.  The initiative focuses on education and training for two teams of health professionals:

• general practice teams
• community health teams (especially those engaged in alcohol and drug service, community pharmacy and mental health service delivery).

"Can Do" will improve the capacity of general practice and divisions to recognise and effectively respond to mental health and substance use issues in their community through:

• national implementation of structured education and training covering coordination of care, assessment, treatment and referral for service users who present with mental health and substance use conditions
• adaptation, dissemination and uptake of accredited resources and materials that enhance general practice understanding of co-existing mental health and substance use conditions
• needs analysis and implementation of supplementary youth menatl health and substance use materials for use in the general practice setting.

Two streams of activities will be implemented:

Stream 1

Stream 2

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