Australian National Minimum Data Set for Clients of Alcohol and Other DrugTreatment Services: findings of the national pilot and developments in implementation
J. Copeland et A. Conroy, Australian National Minimum Data Set for Clients of Alcohol and Other DrugTreatment Services: findings of the national pilot and developments in implementation, DRUG AL REV, 20(3), 2001, pp. 295-298
Data about drug treatment populations and the services they receive are an
important source of information for the understanding and addressing of dru
g-related harms. In 1998 the Minimum Data Set Project for Alcohol and Other
Drug Treatment Services was conducted in Australia to develop a set of sta
ndards that would enable the collection of meaningful national data. This p
aper reports on the findings of a 6-week pilot collection period in 1998. I
t showed that the integration of agreed data collection procedures in the d
aily practice of agencies was feasible, capable of yielding worthwhile data
, and may have immediate advantages for the provision of treatment services
in Australia. This dataset commenced national collection in July 2000 and
ongoing developments are discussed.