Drug treatment effectiveness strategy launched
Focus on the service user's journey:

The National Treatment Agency's strategy to improve the effectiveness of drug misuse treatment in England, has been widely welcomed by drug users, treatment services and politicians alike. The strategy places a strong focus on the adult service user's experience of treatment. This marks a step forward from the NTA's initial focus on increasing the availability of care.

'Drug treatment should be about lifestyle change. It's not about being abandoned on a maintenance prescription. While we've made good progress on expanding availability, too many people are getting stuck in treatment with limited progress. That's not what service users, their carers or society want or need,” says Paul Hayes , chief executive of the NTA. “The NTA's treatment effectiveness strategy aims to create systems which are focused on improving the clients' journey through and beyond treatment. We will be providing support and guidance to treatment managers and commissioners to enable them to build this system with the increased funding they are receiving over the next three years. Some services are already taking this approach, but everyone – including partners in housing, social services, employment and education – needs to be committed to this agenda if we are to maximise the benefits of drug treatment for individuals and the wider society'.

The treatment effectiveness strategy aims to:

• Provide speedy access to treatment [i.e. access to first episode of treatment within three weeks,
• with local investigations if a client waits for more than six weeks].
• Retain clients in treatment long enough for them to benefit [i.e. over 12 weeks].
• Enable them to access the range of drug treatment and social care [e.g. housing support] they
• need to improve their lives. These services should be integrated through individual care plans
• which are developed and regularly reviewed in partnership with the client.

The NTA and the Healthcare Commission are assessing care planning in all areas this year and the NTA will produce a national care planning and review tool which will:

• Enable all clients to get to a point where they can either:
• Leave treatment. This is likely to require an increase in the use of detoxification and rehabilitation
• services as an exit route from treatment; or 
• Be maintained in less specialist or intense services [e.g. move from a specialist drug treatment
••provider, to a primary care provider such as a GP].
• Enable all clients, including those who require long term maintenance as well as those who can
••leave treatment, to return to work, education and secure housing.