ABSTRACT
Around 200,000 people are now receiving some treatment and care from the drug treatment system and the treatment workforce numbers about 9,000. Treatment usually provided today in a range of services is complex. Interventions available include care-planned prescribing, community detoxification, low threshold prescribing and Tier 2 interventions, and treatment for both drugs and alcohol misuse. Services range widely in size, and similarly there is a wide range in the size of caseloads. The overwhelming majority of services seem to have embraced case management principles and this approach is becoming more embedded and refined over time. In terms of performance, there is a significant ‘agency effect’ and the most important influence on engagement with treatment seems similarly to be the character of the treatment agency itself. Different kinds of agencies see people with different needs and, broadly speaking, these needs match the declared role of the agency. About half of these service users are reported to have children and a high proportion are in receipt of state benefits.
