Media release: 31 May 2007
A new tool designed to measure real outcomes for clients in drug treatment in England will be the first to become fully applied to any national clinical practice or drug treatment monitoring system.
Developed by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) in partnership with Dr John Marsden and Dr Michael Farrell - leading researchers in outcomes monitoring in substance misuse - the Treatment Outcomes Profile (TOP) is a series of simple questions to measure outcomes in a way that is sensitive to change over time.
Up until now, the collective and individual success of drug treatment has been monitored using process and proxy measures alone, such as waiting times and how long a client stays in treatment, respectively; the TOP will add significantly to these monitoring tools.
From now on specialist drug services and primary care practitioners working with drug misusers will incorporate the TOP questions into clinical practice and regular care plan reviews to measure where there are real improvements for clients in treatment, such as whether they are using fewer or less drugs, are in education or employment, or have housing.
From mid-June, the TOP will be rolled-out to service providers and practitioners who currently report data to the National Drug Treatment System (NDTMS) in England through a comprehensive distribution programme, along with training and support materials.
Regional events are also planned to help smooth the implementation of the TOP and drug treatment services and practitioners should start to use it as soon as their keyworkers are trained to do so.
It will be fully integrated into drug treatment and clinical practice and picked up by NTDMS from October 2007, when it will become one of the most widely used psychometric monitoring tools of its kind.
NTA Chief Executive, Paul Hayes, said: “The NTA and treatment services have successfully increased numbers in treatment, reduced waiting times and improved retention in treatment. It’s now time to look at the wider picture and measure the things that have a direct impact on the health and social wellbeing of clients. The TOP will help ensure treatment benefits clients and will lead to reduced crime and safer communities.
“The TOP will be a standardised tool across all drug treatment services, which will allow better monitoring of the true effectiveness of treatment programmes rather than just carrying out a number-crunching exercise. Outcomes monitoring needs to be experienced as a genuinely useful tool in care planning, to let clients and their keyworkers get a clear and objective picture of progress through treatment. We need to engage service users, providers, GPs and other clinicians in the process to monitor improvement.”
The TOP has been validated through a field test with around 1,000 service users across a range of structured drug treatment modalities and has been declared “quick and simple to use” by keyworkers and “really positive” by service users.
Minister of State for Public Health, Caroline Flint, said: “I welcome the Treatment Outcomes Profile because it will enable us to have a better understanding about what types of treatment have real impact on client behaviour and progress. The TOP is a world first because it will record in day to day practice, real outcomes of treatment in all the key areas where drugs impact on the individual and society.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
The National Treatment Agency (NTA) is a special health authority, established by government in 2001. The Agency aims to increase the availability, capacity and effectiveness of substance misuse treatment in England.
For further information please contact:
Yvonne Lloyd, Senior Communications Officer, 020 7261 8635
yvonne.lloyd@nta-nhs.org.uk
