I made this speech during the debate on the Drug & Alcohol Strategy.
I will be brief but I would just like to make 2 or 3 comments on what I think is an excellent report.
What did strike me when reading this strategy was how many organisations were and continue to be involved in this area. Clearly there is a need for some rationalisation. I do welcome the realisation of the need for a multi-agency approach with services organised around the client. From the last 3 months on the board of HSSD all these issues have been apparent.
We need to be more client focussed, not service focussed,
I also recognise the comment made in 5.1.5 where it says ‘the tools used to measure treatment outcomes vary within the service’. In fact, in many areas there is no data on outcomes at all.
In order to be evidence informed we need to measure outcomes.
Again, there has been an issue about the resistance to sharing data and I am hopeful that, with the work the Chief Information officer is doing, some perceived problems can be resolved.