Transcript Arrest Referral - Scottish Drugs Forum

Arrest Referral
Andrew Horne
Operations Manager
Turning Point Scotland
Aims of Arrest Referral
►
►
To enable people with drug
misuse problems to
overcome them and lead
crime free lives.
To protect our
communities from drug
related anti social
behaviour.
Tackling Drugs in Scotland, Action in
Partnership
The case for arrest referral
► Problematic
drug use is closely related to
crime (which is often low level)
► Of 364 admissions to prison 75% tested
positive for drug use.
► 71% of arrestees proved positive for drug
use (Scottish Executive CRU 2000)
► History - London
(ISD Scotland 2002)
What is arrest referral?
► It
is an opportunity to engage people with
drug misuse problems.
► It is using a point of crisis to allow people
the opportunity to seek help.
► It has no legal obligations and has no
bearing on future actions by the Procurator
Fiscal nor the courts.
► It is a voluntary decision for arrestees.
Different Schemes
There are a number of different ways of
operating arrest referral schemes.
► Police station based staff.
► Project on call.
► Fax referral.
► Court Based referral.
► Pre arrest referral cards.
Target or Blanket Approach
► Targeted
referral is where the police
nominate people whom they believe to be
drug users to the scheme.
► Blanket Approach is where all arrestees are
informed about the existence of the scheme
by card and/or verbal information.
There are advantages to both systems
depending on the personnel.
Turning Point Scotland arrest
referral Schemes
► 218/timeout
► Cactus
► Northern
► Big
River
Horizons
What Works
►
►
►
A service to meet your
geography. Rural versus Urban.
Drug services are relational
(datos). The consistency of the
relationship between assessor
and service user will dictate
attendance and retention. The
assessor should where possible
meet the person for the first
follow up meeting and
preferably become the key
worker
Fast response times.
And what else works
► Range
of accessible services including prescribing,
housing, health and social services
► Real and Practical
► Full Drug Action Team support
► Police commitment across all levels (commander
to turnkey)
► Good reporting on progress.
What does not work?
► Referral
only services
► Signposting only services
► No follow up
► No search and rediscover
► Card only systems
Nick Davies – Guardian 22 May 2003
The first and most important bridge is arrest-referral:
anybody who is arrested and who has a drug problem is
interviewed by an arrest-referral worker who will offer them
an appointment. The problem is that, according government
research, 97% of those who are interviewed fail to make it
into effective treatment: nearly half simply reject the approach; of those
who accept an appointment, 78% never turn up; of those who do turn
up, an estimated 45% drop out within a fortnight and 72% within six
months. Home Office researchers found that in 12 months, 48,770 users
were screened by arrest-referral workers; only 5,520 subsequently turned
up for an appointment; only 1,545 in the whole country in all the 12
months continued to turn up for at least six months.
Conclusions
► What
works for your area
► What is cost effective
► What is the up take and retention
► What are the treatment options.