NHS Highland’s Caithness Drug and Alcohol Recovery Services (DARS) team have been recognised in the annual Mental Health Nursing Forum Scotland Awards 2023.
The team has been shortlisted in the Community Mental Health Nursing award category for their creation of the Trigger Checklist, a referral tool to identify risk and trigger outreach in order to reduce drug-related harm.
Caithness DARS is an NHS recovery-focused supportive treatment service for any adult concerned about their own or somebody else's drug or alcohol use. They work towards a service user's own goals for recovery at all times with a strong emphasis on harm reduction.
The Trigger Checklist is based on a set of questions directed at the referrer's knowledge of the person and covers things such as health and social situations that may increase harm to the individual. Rather than opting into care, the Trigger Checklist works on an opt-out model. It is designed to change the way services view their responsibilities to assert treatment by helping them identify risk and place public protection ahead of confidentiality. This means they can identify people without the need for explicit consent to pass on the information.
Allowing the team to make contact, build trust and support the person to improve their health outcomes and establish their own recovery goals reduces stigma around drug use and focuses on reducing drug-related harm.
The aim of this is to see more people at risk of drug-related harm into service, therefore increasing the potential to reduce drug-related death. So far, areas within Caithness have patients who have had a higher previous non-fatal overdose than other areas.
The DARS team collaborated with existing team members and wider professional partners such as police, hospital staff, third sector and voluntary staff.
Lesley Campbell, Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service Team Lead, said: “Everyone involved in the project has worked so hard in planning and executing the Trigger Checklist, so we are all so excited to be shortlisted for this award. We can already see it's made a real difference to people with substance use issues and demonstrates the commitment and dedication of our team to provide the best possible care for people and drive forward improvement in our services.”
Bev Fraser, Strategic Lead for Drug and Alcohol Recovery Services, added: “The Feedback has been very positive from patients and staff in and outwith the service and we plan to roll out the checklist to new services locally. The project lead has also been raising awareness of the project both within Highland and by speaking at the recent Healthcare Improvement Scotland Conference, which resulted in meeting with other drug and alcohol services online who were interested in preparing their services to embed the trigger checklist in practice.”
The Mental Health Nursing Forum Scotland Awards are on Friday 6 October 2023, Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel in Glasgow, where the winners will be announced.
Read more about drug and alcohol recovery services and more support for alcohol and drug recovery.