NICE have published a new quality standard aimed at supporting the recovery for adults with drug use disorders, including opioids, cannabis, stimulants and other drugs.

This set of documents on drug use disorders now sits beside the existing NICE quality standards on dementia, depression in adults, alcohol dependence and service user experiences of adult mental health.

The new standard is aimed at health and social care professionals, commissioners and service providers, but there is also a patient version of the guidance for the general public.

It covers the treatment of adults who misuse opioids, cannabis, stimulants or other drugs in all settings in which care is received, in particular inpatient and specialist residential and community-based treatment settings. This includes related organisations such as prison services and the interface with other services, for example those provided by the voluntary sector.

The 10 quality statements in the standard are:

1. People who inject drugs have access to needle and syringe programmes in accordance with NICE guidance
2. People in drug treatment are offered a comprehensive assessment
3. Families and carers of people with drug use disorders are offered an assessment of their needs
4. People accessing drug treatment services are offered testing and referral for treatment for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV and vaccination for hepatitis B
5. People in drug treatment are given information and advice about the following treatment options: harm-reduction, maintenance, detoxification and abstinence
6. People in drug treatment are offered appropriate psychosocial interventions by their key-worker
7. People in drug treatment are offered support to access services that promote recovery and reintegration including housing, education, employment, personal finance, healthcare and mutual aid
8. People in drug treatment are offered appropriate formal psychosocial interventions and/or psychological treatments
9. People who have achieved abstinence are offered continued treatment or support for at least 6 months
10. People in drug treatment are given information and advice on the NICE eligibility criteria for residential rehabilitative treatment

Gill Leng, Director of Health and Social Care at NICE said:

This new quality standard aims to drive improvements in key areas of the drug use treatment pathway, by providing a set of measurable markers to help demonstrate how services are performing.

Links

Quality standard for drug use disorders. QS23, NICE, 19 Nov 2012.

QS23 Drug use disorders: information for patients (PDF). NICE, 19 Nov 2012.

QS23 Drug use disorders: NICE support for commissioners and others (PDF). NICE, 19 Nov 2012.