About ADA
ADA Australia began operations in 2016, offering drug and alcohol awareness training to businesses, unions, group apprenticeship schemes, schools, sporting clubs and other community groups across Australia.
As it has grown, ADA Australia has expanded its services to include workplace mental health training and higher-level workplace compliance advice (for WHS and Drug and Alcohol Policy obligations).
Our Training
Today, ADA Australia offers a range of training options addressing mental health and risks around drugs and alcohol, both at work, at home, and in the community. Our training can ensure that your people are alert to their responsibilities, aware of the impact of their behaviours on themselves and others, aware of workplace policies and processes to protect mental wellbeing and AOD compliance, and aware of support services available to them.
On-Site Training
Our on-site training offers highly engaging workshops ranging from 1 hour to full day, shorter toolbox or tea-break talks, and leadership seminars.
Online Webinars
Interactive online webinars for flexible remote participation, any time, any hour.
At ADA Australia, we understand that when you invest in training you want it to ‘stick’:
- To drive awareness and behavioural change
- To change mindsets, to foster improved workplace culture and practices
- To increase satisfaction, engagement and productivity
- To produce lasting benefits to the wellbeing of all at the workplace
That's why we work so hard on targeting the message to your audience and offer flexible delivery in keeping with your operational demands or time limitations.
The ADA Australia family is passionate in driving change — so that all workers, young people and members of the community can make better life choices that can lead to a safer, and improved quality of, life.
Resources
Uniquely, ADA Australia has produced its own easily-read resources (each clinically reviewed) which provide the content basis for the training solutions in AOD and mental health it offers.
It now provides AOD and workplace mental health training - to both 'the shop floor' and to team leaders and management - to numerous corporate businesses, key unions, regulators, NGOs, and small and medium businesses around Australia.
If interested in building engagement, commitment and contentment among your people, and meeting your compliance obligations around mental health and AOD, talk to us, we have a tailored training solution (online and face-to-face) to suit.
About Our Trainers
All ADA Australia trainers carry both 'lived experience' and qualifications in counselling (among other qualifications and professional experience). Each has "been there"; and each is a testament to the power of recovery and the journey back from the end of a dark road of addiction.
They bring the searing honesty of their own journeys through depression, anxiety and alcohol and drug dependence, to each presentation.
Their 'lived experience' will find the mark with your people - particularly with those who may be confronting their own challenges.
Our Course Materials
ADA Australia has produced a unique and growing suite of resources and online and face-to-face training courses and workshops, each authored by industry professional Tim O'Brien, ADA Manager of Research and Content.
The following resources form the content basis for the training solutions in AOD and mental health we provide to make your workplace safer, more productive, and more mentally healthy (to build engagement, commitment and contentment):
- A Handbook of Workplace Mental Health
- A Handbook of ALCOHOL, DRUGS and WORKPLACE RISK
Each resource is published exclusively by ADA Australia and is its copyright property. All ADA Australia course materials, handbooks and presentations have been reviewed by clinical psychologists (internal and external) and by experienced practitioners in AOD training and interventions and in workplace mental health training and interventions.
About ADA Australia
Quick answers to questions we hear from new clients and partners.
ADA Australia began operations in 2016, originally focused on drug and alcohol awareness training for businesses, unions, group apprenticeship schemes, schools, sporting clubs and community groups. The training catalogue has since expanded to cover workplace mental health, leadership, and bullying / gendered-violence prevention.
Australia-wide. Programs are delivered on-site at workplaces in every state and territory, with online webinar formats available for remote and dispersed teams. Content is calibrated to Australian WHS legislation and Australian support services.
Every ADA trainer holds professional qualifications alongside their own lived experience of mental health challenges, depression, anxiety, or substance dependence. The combination — credential plus story — is what makes our training connect, particularly with participants quietly facing their own challenges.
The Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) program is nationally accredited through Mental Health First Aid Australia and delivered by certified MHFA instructors. Most other ADA programs are professional-development training calibrated to Australian WHS frameworks rather than formal qualifications — they're designed to drive workplace behaviour change, not certify individuals.
Corporates, unions, government agencies, NGOs, group apprenticeship schemes, schools, sporting clubs, and community organisations. Industries we frequently work with include construction, mining, transport, healthcare, emergency services, manufacturing, and professional services.
Yes. All programs can be tailored — industry-specific risk scenarios, alignment with your existing AOD and mental-health policies, co-branded materials, and content adapted for different audiences from frontline workers to executives.
Stay In The Loop
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."