Assessing Standards of Care for the Treatment and Rehabilitation for Substance Abuse

The purpose of this publication is to develop and provide basic guidelines and criteria for the development of programmes to assess standards of care in the treatment of substance abusers in the CARICOM region. This handbook is adapted from the Standards of Care of the Treatment of Drug Dependence prepared in 2000 by the Organization of American Status/Inter‐American Drug Abuse Control Commission (OAS/CICAD) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The reference document, Assessing the Standards of Care in Substance Abuse Treatment (WHO, 1994) is an equally important point of departure. The recommendations of CARICOM demand reduction experts are also captured in this publication through the instrumentality of the CARICOM Secretariat. According to Klein, Day, Harriott and Oppenheimer (2001), guidelines for “standards and care”, accompanied by a system of regular inspections to ensure high quality of care, are needed in all CARICOM members states. In the report by Klein et.al., submitted to and endorsed by the 5th Council on Human and Social Development (COHSOD), it was acknowledged that insufficient progress had been made in the provision of treatment and rehabilitation services by CARICOM member states. Additionally, the existing regime regulating facilities to oversee the existing, primarily residential, treatment and rehabilitation centres, was described as “rudimentary”. In recent times and in response to unmet needs, a number of treatment facilities have been established. Many of these facilities are not guided by standards related to facilities, services and personnel. Caribbean based demand reduction specialists have expressed the need for standards to govern treatment and rehabilitation facilities and services. In seeking to address this problem, the CARICOM Secretariat determined that a handbook would be a useful tool to guide the fledgling but diverse treatment and rehabilitation sector in the region. This handbook should contain a set of standards that are relevant and appropriate for CARICOM countries and which complies with international standards for safety and efficacy. CARICOM demand reduction experts have agreed that, prior to the anticipated increase in treatment and rehabilitation services across the Caribbean, it was an opportune time to generate a handbook.