At the beginning of March I flew to Copenhagen to learn about Denmark’s sensible and effective approach to harm reduction.
Dr Prun Bijral, Medical Director at Change Grow Live recently presented his key findings and action points at an event in Halifax designed to maximise the opportunities offered by the 2017 Drug Strategy.
Over the past 18 months we have been working on a national programme to reduce missed appointments. This work has been motivated by the knowledge that missed appointments are a potential indicator of increased likelihood of a preventable death.
We need to make sure that our services are as efficient as they can be, make the best use of digital and mobile technologies, ensure that interventions are targeted where they’ll make the biggest impact and are responsive to changing patterns of needs amongst our service users.
Not only can we learn a lot by taking a more comprehensive view on approaches to drug strategy and treatment from our international counterparts, but we can offer an insight into our own strengths and innovation in return.
CGL was commended by the council for providing a robust and cost effective solution with a planned approach, on time from a friendly and knowledgeable team.
Investment into treatment and services must be protected if we are to build upon the gains made over the last twenty years.
We are an outreach team which means that we do not see any service users at our office – instead we will go out within the community to meet with young people.
In order to effectively coordinate and review the quality, performance and activity of young people's services at a national level, we identified a need to develop our established case management system - CRiiS.
It seems important to me that the new Drug Strategy balances the aspiration of recovery with the evidence of what works in promoting health and well-being.
