Research and consultancy support to define and improve prevention and recovery through better substance misuse outcomes in Dundee. This is in response to the challenge from the Scottish Government to “make a decisive shift towards prevention”.

• establish what prevention and early intervention looks like in terms of tackling substance misuse in Dundee
• present an understanding of, and differentiate the various causes and routes into substance misuse
• assess the extent to which the existing Dundee Alcohol and Drug strategy and commissioned services succeed in delivering prevention, early intervention and sustainable recovery
• identify the services/activities which will make the biggest impact in maximising prevention and recovery outcomes
• define the key characteristics of effective services to inform future commissioning
• present any lessons from alcohol and drug partnerships elsewhere in the UK

• Prevention and Early Intervention Literature review (based on a review of reviews).
• Desk-based review of existing national and local datasets, reports, meeting minutes, etc.
• Desk-based review of commissioned service data against NICE/Recovery Guidelines.
• Two key stakeholder events (at start and end of project).
• A Working Group of Senior Strategic and Operational Managers (who met three times).
• 24 Key Stakeholder Interviews.
• 3 Focus Groups with Peer Mentors and Carers
• Online survey distributed to all Scottish ADP’s to map prevention activity across Scotland and assess current priorities and challenges, as well as identify areas of good practice.
• Development of a Case Studies document to identify suitable examples of good practice from across the UK and ROI (both prevention/early intervention services and redesigned ‘prevention-based’ commissioning systems).