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Professional Education in Co‐occurring Disorders: Some Considerations towards Practice Development

&NA; The aims of this paper are to provide a brief overview of the types of education and training as well as a framework for co‐occurring disorders courses at foundation and advanced levels. Mental health nurses encounter substance abuse problems as part of their workload and should be prepared adequately to work with individuals with the co‐existence of mental health and substance abuse. However, co‐occurring disorders are not often picked up by substance abuse or mental health services, indicating a need for improvement in ongoing professional development. The targeted audience for education and training in core competencies should be staff working in community mental health teams, inpatient services, assertive outreach teams, early intervention teams, crisis resolution teams, primary care, mental health services for older people, independent mental health projects, accommodation services, day care services, statutory drug and alcohol services, independent drug and alcohol service providers, and those working in hostel accommodations, housing, prison health care probation, and others in the criminal justice system. The theoretical and skills‐based training will need to adopt a two‐tiered approach as individuals working within mental health services will by definition need a higher emphasis on training around substance misuse and vice versa for individuals working in substance misuse services. One of the agenda items for interagency training is to challenge negative attitudes and prejudices around both mental health problems and substance misuse.