SCAN Conference 08

Specialism and Professionalism in Addiction

Treatment

Date: 25^th - 26^th September 2008

Venue: Radisson SAS, Manchester Airport

Topics Include:

• What is Special about addiction specialists?
• New opportunities in UK addiction research?
• What Is happening with sick health professionals?
• Developing innovative services: how to write the winning bid
• How can addiction specialists support service improvement, and how can the NTA support addiction specialists
• The secret of recovery
• Whats new with Contingency Management?
• CBT in substance misuse treatment: what is the role now?
• Psychological therapy (in substance misuse) with adolescent/family therapy
• Liver disease and addiction
• Infections and addiction
• Alcohol misuse in methadone maintenance
• The science of harm reduction

Registration details coming soon.....

For further information contact:

Rebecca Murchie

E: rebecca.murchie@nta-nhs.org.uk T: 020 7261 8706

SCAN Consensus Project - Substance misusing clients with mental health problems:  A brief practitioner's guide for Criminal Justice Integrated Teams

The brief practitioner's guide has been designed specifically for staff in Criminal Justice Integrated Teams (CJITs) but it may also be useful to other service providers. While it is not the core role of CJITs to manage or treat mental health comorbidity, it is important to be able to recognise and refer clients with these problems to appropriate care. And so the guide's main aim is to provide accessible information to achieve this.

This project was commissioned by the Home Office Drug Interventions Programme and Drug Strategy Unit. The partnership work undertaken to produce this guide has included contributions from a wide range of stakeholders informed by a working group comprised of the Department of Health, Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal College of Psychiatrists, British Psychological Society, Royal College of Nursing, National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA), the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) (part of the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP), National Offender Management Service,  Drug Strategy Unit, Health and Offender Partnerships, mental health commissioners, agencies involved in the organisation and delivery of substance misuse and mental health services, CJITs, and representatives from the Specialist Clinical Addiction Network (SCAN).

Using background information collated, a team from SCAN has distilled information down to this brief practitioner's guide for CJIT staff. You can download the document here, and a Word version of the local service contacts template is also available here. Hard copies can be ordered from scandamin@nta-nhs.org.uk

Clinical Audit and the new guidelines: Help in the Swamp?

Dr Stuart McLaren, Consultant Psychiatrist in Addiction, Devon Partnership Trust.

In the swampy lowland, messy, confusing problems defy technical solution. The irony of this situation is that the problems of the high ground tend to be relatively unimportant to individuals or society at large, however great their technical interest may be, while in the swamp lie the problems of greatest human concern. Donald  Schön, Educating the Reflective Practitioner, 1987

The new Drug misuse and dependence: UK guidelines on clinical management (the ‘Orange Book') and associated National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) substance misuse guidance provide a rich source of material to support clinical audit. But to what extent will this guidance and clinical audit really help to improve the quality of drug misuse care in the messy NHS swamp?

To read more please follow the link SCANbites