Providing a model of health care service to stimulant users in Sydney

Abstract

Despite the harms associated with stimulant use, treatment options for stimulant users are limited. Psychosocial interventions are the mainstay of treatment, with greater effectiveness among people with less severe use. As many stimulant users delay treatment seeking, St Vincent’s Hospital Stimulant Treatment Programme in Sydney established a check-up programme to attract stimulant users. The model, termed the S-Check Clinic, is a four-session brief intervention with psychosocial and medical components. An evaluation of S-Check was conducted to describe service users’, assess retention and establish perceptions of the service. A mixed methods approach was used consisting of assessing clinical records of 186 clients attending at least one session and qualitative interviews with 10 clients. Eighty-one percent attended two sessions and 59% attended all four. Just over half (52.2%) reported previous experience with drug treatment. Participants rated each session favourably, with median scores of above 90 out of 100. In interviews clients’ reported on the benefits of a service designed for stimulant users and delivered within a non-judgmental, harm reduction framework. The findings suggest the attractiveness of this dedicated service offering brief psychological and medical interventions to stimulant users. Further translational research is required to scale up this promising service delivery model.

Keywords:

• Australia
• brief interventions
• drug services
• drug use
• healthcare

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Peter Middleton and the clinic staff and participants of the S-Check programme for facilitating and participating in the evaluation. In particular, the role that Brian Francis played in driving both the establishment of S-check and in ensuring that this service was evaluated must be acknowledged.

Declaration of interest

The authors thank the Commonwealth of Australia who funded the project through the Substance Misuse Service Delivery Fund.