Drug and Alcohol and Mental Health Information Management Project 

Background

Increasingly complex client presentations, especially relating to the presentation of co-morbid mental health and drug and alcohol problems, have been noted by drug and alcohol services for a number of years. Comorbidity and mental health specific client information is not routinely collected by the drug and alcohol sector despite the fact that a large proportion of clients have symptoms of mental illness in addition to drug and alcohol use issues. As part of the NSW Health strategy ‘A New Direction in Mental Health’, NADA has been provided a grant to undertake a project that will build the capacity of agencies to assess and measure outcomes for clients with drug and alcohol and mental health issues.

Objective

The objective of the NGO Drug and Alcohol and Mental Health Information Management Project is to develop and implement a system for measuring routine client outcomes with non government drug and alcohol treatment organisations.

The project will run over a 4 year period to June 2012. 

Where are we up to?

Treatment Outcomes Data Collection System Pilot Process

At the end of 2009, NADA released an Expression of Interest for member organisations wanting to be part of the pilot process of the Treatment Outcomes Data Collection System. Ten organisations are part of the pilot group with the pilot implementation training sessions taking place between April and August 2010. Following an evaluation of the pilot, the Treatment Outcomes Data Collection System will be made available to NADA members in 2011.

Project Manager: Contact Jo Khoo on  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   or ph 02 8113 1315.

Implementation

Project Plan Summary - click here

Project Background Paper - provides information on the need for this project and how the project will be implemented. Click here to download the paper.

Project Evaluation Framework - NADA has engaged an independent consultant to undertake an evaluation of the project using a continuous improvement, action research model, click here to download a copy of the framework.

Baseline Evaluation Report - this report contains the findings from the baseline consultation completed in June and July 2009 with the NADA membership.

Determining the treatment outcomes data collection set - This paper documents the process taken by NADA to determine the treatment outcomes data collection set. The data collection set was finalised by the project advisory committee in November 2009 and incorporates existing standardised tools or items from standardised tools that have undergone research to establish their validity and reliability.

Resources and Communication

A Review of Screening, Assessment and Outcome Measures for Drug and Alcohol Settings was commissioned by NADA to inform the selection of measures for use in this project. NADA also hopes that this review will be a useful reference resource for organisations researching screening and measurement of treatment outcomes for clients with drug and alcohol and mental health issues.

Presentations from NADA Member Forum - 21 October 2009

Outcome measurement and the data collection set - Jo Khoo

Presentation on baseline consultation