HOT TOPICS for November and December 2011
The more important an issue is, the more likely it is to be contested. These are the hot topics,
some new, some perennial, plus some which ought to be hot but have been neglected. Our selection
gives you one-click access to relevant Findings analyses. New entries are drafted or previous ones
updated every two months. The latest set is now at:
http://findings.org.uk/hot_topics.php
Individual links below.
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GET THEM EARLY: SEEMS TO MAKE SENSE, BUT DOES IT WORK?
Early years parenting support and preschool education are major and new planks in British drug
strategies. Whatever their other positive effects, the evidence that such programmes can affect
later substance use is thin. Is it enough to at least partially justify the *Get them early*
commonsense assumption? Make your own mind up by checking the findings thrown up by this hot topic
search.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=prev_early.hot
WHAT ABOUT EVIDENCE-BASED COMMISSIONING?
Generally recognised as the weak link in the UK response to drug and alcohol problems, commissioning
is the crucial process of ensuring that the pattern of services in an area coherently and
efficiently meets local needs and achieves local and national objectives. Run the searches to see
what has been discovered by evaluators about how commissioning works and how it might work better.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=commission.hot
HARM REDUCTION FLOOD NEEDED TO EXTINGUISH THE HEPATITIS C EPIDEMIC
In the early 90s Druglink magazine alerted British drug workers to the until 1989 invisible
*sleeping giant* of hepatitis C infection. Before a test was available to identify it, the virus had
already infected many more drug injectors than HIV ever would. Since then Britain has not mounted an
attack commensurate with the dimensions of the epidemic. How might the UK move forward to control
hepatitis C as well as it seems to have controlled HIV? The options will be found among the research
retrieved by this hot topic search.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=hep_C.hot
REINTEGRATION AND RECOVERY OBJECTIVES STRETCH UK DRUG TREATMENT SERVICES
Reintegration and recovery are at the heart of the treatment strands (and even in the titles) of UK
national drug policies. What for governments counts as recovery is not precise but the themes are
clear: some of the most marginal and damaged of people are to become active, contributing, drug- or
dependence-free and self-supporting citizens. If that is the task, what does the evidence say? This
omnibus search gathers together all the analyses on our site assigned the keywords recovery or
reintegration as objectives or outcomes of drug treatment.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=reint_recover.hot
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Effectiveness Bank alerts are provided by Drug and Alcohol Findings (http://findings.org.uk) to
alert you to site updates and recent UK-relevant evaluation studies and reviews of drug/alcohol
interventions. Findings is managed by DrugScope, Alcohol Concern and the National Addiction Centre.
The Effectiveness Bank is supported by Alcohol Research UK (formerly the AERC).
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