2026/03/11 by Gianluca Di Censo, Jacqueline Bowden, Suzie Hudson +4 · 1 voice
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Educational Practices and Policies #Social Work Education and Practice #Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
paper · doi:10.1080/0312407x.2025.2609818
openalex publication_date 2026/03/11 · openalex created_date 2026/03/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/11
Although social workers regularly support clients facing alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems, social workers often do not receive adequate AOD training during their tertiary education. As research in Australia is minimal, the current study was conducted to examine the extent to which social workers received AOD training during tertiary education and their self-perceived AOD-related professional competency. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 227 Australian social workers (57.3% female). Participants reported their AOD training history and completed a scale that assessed their perceived competence in working with AOD-affected clients. Participants reported a high level of perceived competency (MRole Adequacy = 4.1 [SD = 0.6] on a 5-point scale), which is important given that participants on average indicated that 53.9% of their caseload had AOD issues. A linear regression analysis revealed that completing an AOD subject/lecture series or placement was significantly associated with higher perceived competency compared to receiving no tertiary AOD training. AOD training beyond tertiary studies, years of practice, and lived experience did not explain any additional variance. The findings highlight the importance of including dedicated AOD content and promoting AOD placements in social work curricula to prepare graduates with the competencies required to support clients facing AOD problems.IMPLICATIONS Social work participants typically viewed themselves as proficient in assisting clients with alcohol and other drug (AOD) issues—which is important given their estimation that more than half of their clients encounter these problems.Since participants who completed a placement or an AOD-specific subject during their tertiary education reported higher self-perceived competence compared to those without AOD-specific training, it would be beneficial for social work curricula to incorporate this content.