EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Toolkit to measure and monitor local drug treatment demand

Toolkit to measure and monitor local drug treatment demand

Introduction

In most countries, people who are dependent on drugs are stigmatised and excluded from mainstream society. But these people should not be shut out. Treatment can offer a more positive outcome. Proper treatment relies on information – on the individual level and on trends and patterns of drug dependency. This toolkit provides common standards for data collection and monitoring. It will enable professionals to better measure drug treatment demand and respond accordingly with effective reduction programmes and projects. The toolkit is created by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

Description

The toolkit sets out with listing all the reasons for collecting standardised drug treatment data. It provides practical guidance on how to build the foundation of the drug treatment demand information system. It deals with issues such as:

executing a thorough needs assessment
gaining organisational and political support
the sort of data needs to be collected, and for what purpose
implementing a drug treatment demand information system
issues that may arise in the analysis of and the reporting on the collected data
evaluating and maintaining the newly implemented drugs information system

Background information

Data on demand for drug abuse treatment are commonly available in many countries. However, there is an overall lack of standardisation with regard to data coverage, concepts, methods and tools. This makes cross-national comparisons and identification of client characteristics and their needs in different national and regional settings very difficult.

Conclusions

In order to implement an information system for drugs, it is essential to approach the issue both from an operational perspective and from an organisational perspective.

The operational perspective is the ground level, practical or “bottom-up” approach, in which treatment providers, agencies and services are helped to understand the need for and value of such a system, are signed up to the initiative and become committed to it because they can perceive its value and utility.
The organisational perspective is “top-down” or political approach, in which key individuals and organisations are either driving the initiative because of their own policy needs or are persuaded to adopt the system for the greater good.

This toolkit sets out all the logical stages in the development of a drugs information system that need to be followed.

Contact info

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Mr Stefano Berterame, tel. +43 1 26060 0

Publication date

01/07/2006

Researcher

GAP Toolkit Module 8: Guidance for the measurement of drug treatment demand was produced by the Global Assessment Programme on Drug Abuse (GAP) of the UNODC and the EMCDDA, together with experts from other international organisations and national drug information systems.

Links

Visit the EMCDDA website Visit the UNODC website Download the guidance report in other languages on the UNODC website

Download the toolkit "Guidance for the measurement of drug treatment demand" (PDF, Eng, 510 KB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Quality of life

Keywords

Social services