STAGE 1. Assessing needs
What steps should be completed?
Step 1: Explore the magnitude, characteristics and consequences of drug use
Some sources provide data that do not directly concern drug use, but that are still useful because they are closely related to drug use. They are called "indirect indicators” and, although they do not reveal precise levels of drug use in the community, they enable inferences to be made because they tend to vary in accordance with drug use.
Analysis of the data provided by indirect indicators requires thorough knowledge of the factors that, besides drug use itself, determine how use develops. It is clear that variations in the provision of care (increase or reduction in the number of centres offering treatment for problems related to drug use, introduction of types of treatment that are more attractive to patients, regional inequality in the distribution of centres) will also contribute significantly to variations in the demand for treatment. It is therefore possible that data from a single indirect indicator, such as the demand for specialised treatment in the example that has been shown, are not sufficient in themselves to describe the reality of drug use in the community.
Most indirect drug use indicators are based on data on the health, social or legal complications of drug use, or on data on different aspects of the supply of drugs. Drug use causes the risk of various detrimental complications that, in some cases, will lead to action by health, social, police, judicial or prison services.
In many cases, those responsible for these services collect data that can be used to analyse the evolution of drug-related problems in the community. In other cases, these data can be obtained by establishing collaboration agreements with the agencies involved.
Some of the most relevant indicators of the magnitude and consequences of drug use are the following:
It would be useful to assess the most relevant and accessible of these and other indicators (e.g., quantity, frequency, age at first use) to conduct the needs assessment.
© COPOLAD. Cooperation Programme between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union on Drugs Policies.
