Supporting families through partnership: Eastern Health Board (Area 5) Community Drugs Service.

The goals of this evaluation were to: examine the implications of delivering the service as a specialist service or as part of the mainstream services of the community care team in area 5; and, to examine the outcome for families as a result of intervention by the service. The report was compiled on the basis of documentary analysis, and data collected from range of key individuals involved in the delivery and use of the service. The report found that the Community Drugs Service in Community Care Area 5 provides an intensive and specialist service to families. It is widely viewed as leading to positive outcomes for children and parents. The service is valued by clients, by workers within the EHB, by the Local Drugs Task Forces with whom it shared partnership, and by other external agencies with whom it liases. The future successful operation of the service will benefit from gaining clarity about its objectives, focus, training needs and ethos, and its relationship to the mainstream community care team. If the service is to continue to operate on the basis of partnership with community groups, clarity must be achieved about the respective roles and the responsibilities of the partners. Key terms such as 'prevention', 'stability', and other terms that may have different connotations for the partner agencies, must be defined. Finally, the importance of explicitly recording and documenting expectations and decisions in relation to the service must be recognised