Every day, thousands of New Zealanders’ lives are impacted by addiction.
And every day, addiction practitioners work with whānau and communities living with addiction challenges to help make recovery possible.
Dapaanz is the membership association representing the professional interests of the addiction workforce in Aotearoa.
Your membership of a professional association is important for your clients. It provides them with the assurance that you work ethically and are accountable to Tikanga Matatika – our Code of Ethics. As a registered practitioner, your client can be assured that you are competent to practice as an addiction practitioner and that you receive ongoing professional development.
Yes, you can. You will need to adhere to both Associations’ Codes of Ethics and Rules of Membership and pay registration fees for both.
No it isn’t. However, dapaanz-registered practitioners are gazetted by similar legislation The Substance Addiction Compulsory Assessment and Treatment Act 2017 (known as SACAT), and the Land Transport Act (1998) which also confers health professional registration and ensures competency and ethical standards of addiction practice.
No. Membership belongs to the practitioner, no matter who pays for it.
Your clients, colleagues and employer have assurance that you are competent to practice ethically. Find out more about membership of dapaanz.
You can retain other memberships as well as being a member of dapaanz. Some employers may only pay for or reimburse you for one professional membership.
If you are endorsed as a support worker or are a registered practitioner and need to take time out of addiction practice because of parental leave, personal or family illness, unemployment, overseas travel, or some other reason – you can take a leave of absence (LOA) for up to 12 months, without losing your registration or needing to fulfil the requirement for supervision and CPD points.
You can also apply for a further 12 months after this period, if necessary. It will be noted on the website that you are on LOA, and you cannot work as an addiction practitioner during this period. You will need to pay standard membership during LOA, but not registration or endorsement fees. You will not need to earn CPD points if you are on LOA for 12 months. If you return early you will need to earn a proportion of your CPD requirement i.e., if you return after six months you will need 50 CPD points rather than the full 100.
Please apply for leave of absence as soon as you know you may need to take time out.
To qualify for a student fee, you will be undertaking addiction-related study, either full or part time. However, you do not qualify if you are receiving a salary for over 20 hours from your employer.
There are several ways of earning points, besides study or course attendance.
For instance, a reflective journal is worth 50 points. The journal is an account of two or three practice-related issues a year. It might consist of case studies of 2-3 people, who you have worked with; their presenting issues, what you did, what went well, what you may have done differently and what models you used in your work with this client.
Points can also be earned through in-house training, case presentations in-house, providing supervision, developing a professional development plan, having your work peer-supervised and more. Take a look at our CPD pages to find out more.
It is important that you undertake enough activities to earn your required CPD points in any given membership year. If you have not achieved this because of unforeseen circumstances, please get in touch with us to discuss your renewal options. In this situation you might be placed under a mentoring scheme, or in some circumstances you may be given extra time to complete or resubmit a reflective practice journal. This process will likely include communication between you, dapaanz, and your clinical supervisor or manager.
Clinical supervision is crucial for practitioners engaged in addiction practice. Dapaanz advises that supervision is provided regularly (a minimum of once a month), and more frequently for new or inexperienced practitioners, or if the work is complex. It is important that supervision is provided by a more experienced, or at least an equally experienced practitioner, who has been trained in supervision. Supervision is about supporting, guiding, and providing feedback and reflection to the practitioner. It is not about personal development or therapy for the practitioner.
Supervision can be provided either internally or externally to the agency. This is usually based on the policy of the agency. It can also be provided in group settings or one-on-one. Aronui provides guidance on supervision for addiction practitioners, supervisors and managers.