Policy and Practice Development: How Do We Develop a Shared Strategy?

In the words of the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, “We want the world our children inherit to be defined by the values enshrined in the UN Charter: peace, justice, respect, human rights, tolerance and solidarity.” Within this chapter we explore the United Nations international human rights instruments. We discuss a range of diverse global drug policies. We present a summary of philosophies prevailing within national policies and the underlying theories in relation to substance use treatment. We explore the notion of distributed leadership and partnership approaches and how these can be used to develop shared, sustainable national policies and practices. We provide an example of distributed leadership within the development of one local addiction nursing practice illustrating how clients, nurses, midwives, and researchers developed a model of practice that met client needs and addressed large nursing caseloads. Finally, we demonstrate the partnership approach to international policy development with an example of policy and practice guidelines relating to children of parents who use substances.