ABSTRACT
The formation of Community Alcohol Teams (CATs) has been a focus of alcohol services development across Great Britain, since the intitial Maudsley Alcohol Pilot Project (MAPP) experiment. The Maudsley research made specific recommendations about the proposed functions of CATs including: development of comprehensive services, creation of a centralised network of resources, inter-agency cooperation, educational provision for generic agents, identification/training of generic agents with a special interest in alcohol problems, provisions of support services to all agencies involved with drink problems, installation of new day services, research and monitoring. Minimal recommendations were made concerning physical facilities, ancilliary services, financial support or organisation/management for CATs. Continued investment in specialist services was ensured with the emphasis on CAT members assuming responsibility for the training of other non-hospital agents. Examination of the survey data indicated that 6 CATs were established with the primary aim of first-level interventions.
