Question reference: S5W-31302
- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 26 August 2020
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Current status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 9 September 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on recommendation 9 of the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse Drug-related Deaths Working Group's 2005 report, which stated that "priority must be given to greater development of the Single Shared Assessment (SSA11) as highlighted by the EIU in Integrated Care for Drug Users, Principles and Practice; improving and standardising clinical note taking, and developing effective methods for dealing with clients’ case files across Scotland. To support these efforts, it is essential that robust systems for sharing of information between local generic, specific and voluntary services are developed as a matter of urgency".
Answer
The Scottish Government (Executive) response to this recommendation can be found here - http://www.dldocs.stir.ac.uk/documents/0020632.pdf .
In that response areas of future action are highlighted which, building on work already in place, would deliver those information sharing systems. One of those specifically mentioned was the expansion of the Scottish Drugs Misuse Database (SDMD) to provide: information on numbers of people in treatment; the length of time they remain in treatment; and on outcomes and changes in behaviour. It would also follow clients within services through their individual treatment pathway.
As a result this expanded database provided further information on drug use and the wider social circumstances that underpin an individual’s recovery throughout the course of treatment, thus forming a valuable source of information on the outcomes of drug treatment for services, ADPs and the Scottish Government.
In 2013 the Drugs Strategy Delivery Commission (DSDC) published the Independent Expert Review Of Opioid Replacement Therapies. As part of its response to that document the Scottish Government commissioned Information Services Division ((Scotland) now part of Public Health Scotland) to develop an integrated drug and alcohol information system (DAISy).
DAISy will replace that existing SDMD database and the Drug and Alcohol Waiting Times Database. It will gather key demographic and outcome data on people who engage in drug/alcohol treatment services and will improve the way in which these services are planned and delivered.