Evaluating the drug dependency unit.
An evaluation of the St Mary's Drug Dependency Unit is described. Unit staff were interviewed and a retrospective analysis of 156 records was performed. The advent of HIV infection has led to an emphasis on public health priorities in the treatment of drug misuse. However, DDU staff retain a highly individualistic approach to their work. Staff aiming at abstinence within treatment may compromise important advice on harm minimization. The mean delay between first contact and entering treatment was 10 days; 42% of clients failed to complete the initial assessment. The need to extend access to the service is not easy to reconcile with the increasingly specialised support role for such units implied in recent strategy documents. Little is known of the effectiveness of different services for drug misusers. In this study, only 6% of clients were known to have achieved abstinence at one year. The efficiency of the DDU could be improved by closer definition of the unit's goals and target population, regular progress reviews, shortening the assessment procedure and the computerisation of data collection.
Gillam
S
S
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Dubois-Arber
F
F
Stirzacker
L
L
Croft
A
A
Das Gupta
N
N
D000328:Adult; D002985:Clinical Protocols / Q000592:standards; D003663:Decision Trees; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006757:Hospital Units / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010564:Personnel, Hospital; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data