Scottish Drugs Forum: Annual report 2012/13

Responses to problematic drug use continue to improve in Scotland. Service provision is more coherent, waiting times are down and there is a clearer understanding that all steps in the recovery journey need to be supported.

Commissioners and services are focusing on raising standards at a time when resources are at a premium. SDF’s Big Lottery-funded National Quality Development Programme has helped in excess of 80 projects to implement changes aimed at improving recovery outcomes – often identifying ways to make better use of existing resources.

This is an evolving process. Needs identified by managers and frontline workers have led to the development of SDF’s well-received Sexual and Reproductive Health Initiative and intensified our focus on New Psychoactive Substances through training, events and collaborative working at local and strategic level.

We hope to attract further funding for our Quality Development initiative to help services implement the recommendations in the Opiate Replacement Therapies Review and the new Quality Improvement Framework, both of which underline the need for the wider psycho-social supports.

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