NDARC Technical Report No. 46 (1997)
In 1996 the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia hosted a forum to identify barriers between research and treatment. Together clinicians, researchers and administrators agreed that a lack of comparable alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment data was undermining the overall effectiveness AOD service provision. In response to this, the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services supported The Minimum Data Set Project for Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services. This project’s purpose was to evaluate data collection procedures used in Australian AOD treatment services and to recommended a core set of treatment data items to be standardised. These activities were to be directed towards the establishment of an Australian minimum data set (MDS) for alcohol and other drug treatment services.
A number of literature and consultative sources led to the strategy developed by The Minimum Data Set Project for Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services. An important component of the standardisation process will involve documenting relevant quality assurance procedures and accredited standards. Information collected for this purpose will be compiled during data item development. Rather than providing a literature review, this report describes current Australian AOD data collection instruments, the direction of Australian health care information system development and a plan for the alcohol and other drug sector’s inclusion in this process.