Two case studies of user involvement in the recruitment of staff for drug services

Abstract

We provide a summary of our experience in two contrasting drug services where we attempted to involve the users of drug services in staff recruitment. This proved feasible and appears to offer several potential benefits for service users and treatment agencies; as well as complementing the wider development of user-involvement activities. A considerable investment of time and effort was initially required to develop and implement training but direct costs are low. Practical factors, such as an urgent need to recruit staff rapidly and keep services operating, made it difficult to involve service users on all occasions. Our experience suggests that the methods for involving service users need to be tailored to local circumstances and the size of the organization. Where services are encouraged to demonstrate ‘user involvement’, participation in staff recruitment may be a practical and meaningful performance indicator for drug services.

• Drug involvement
• recruitment
• training