There are a number of clear stages in the treatment and care of people  with drugs and alcohol problem. These are screening, assessment, care planning, care plan review, discharge and aftercare.

Notice that they, in themselves, are not treatment methods - they will not help but unless they are in place things may get a lot worse.

Services will engage more successfully if they are client-centred - with the focus on what the client is trying to do rather than on the agenda of the agency. Click here for more about what client-centred means.

At the screening stage, the focus is on trying to see whether the client has a drug or alcohol, problem, how severe it might be and who might be the best person to help. Risk assessment is also very important at this stage. Screening may be carried out by almost anyone in health and social care who has a client involvement. The core drugs and the core alcohol knowledge programmes contain that background information that people need to be able to do this. Click here for details of our training on risk assessment.

Assessment is trying to understand how the clients' pattern of drug and alcohol use is having a negative impact on his or her life.

Questions will be asked about how they are using drugs and alcohol, their health, environment, legal involvement, housing and so on.

Service Users have the right to be fully involved and informed about what to expect from a service.

Click here to read the Charter of Service User Rights and Responsibilities.

.We have just developed a new assessment programme - click here for more information,

The care planning process involves the client working out the goals they want to receive from treatment and then seeing how they are going to use the available services to help them achieve.

 Care planning is particularly important when a number of organisations are involved. It should help them work in a consistent and co-ordinated way. Where no care planning is present or it is not done properly there is a risk that the client's problems may be made worse. Click here for details of our course on Care Planning and Relapse Prevention

Care planning review is checking out that the whole process is working. It i essential when there are multiple agencies trying to work together.

Discharge and Aftercare is about how the client goes on to support themselves and use available resources as they get back to normal living.