March 2006

P-PG/Epid (2006) E

FINAL REPORT

of the

PROJECT “LOCAL MONITORING OF DRUG PROBLEMS”

Appendix 1

Information, Needs and Resources Assessment

FINAL VERSION


Acknowledgements

The module Information, Needs and Resources Assessment (INRA) is based on a toolkit of the Global Assessment Programme (GAP) of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It has been a deliberate choice in the design of the Pompidou Group project on Local Monitoring of Drug Problems to use existing tools and methods as far as possible, not only to avoid that wheels are invented twice and to achieve consistency of local monitoring activities with national and international standards, but also because of the focus of the GAP approach on networking. The Pompidou Group adheres to the principle that monitoring for policy and practice should be based on networks in which experts involved in the collection and analysis of information and stakeholders who use or should use this information, communicate and work together.

The Pompidou Group thanks UNODC for their permission to use texts and concepts of the GAP toolkit for the purposes of the project on Local Monitoring of Drug Problems.

The original GAP toolkit has been substantially revised by the Pompidou Group project team on Local Monitoring[1] to comply with the specific demands of local drugs monitoring in Europe.


Contents

Introduction   4

Stepwise approach   4

Strategic analysis  4

Worksheets  5

Consistency with national monitoring  5

Getting started   6

Practicalities  6

Step 1: Identifying relevant individuals and institutions  7

Practicalities  7

Step 2: Identifying existing information and data sources  8

Reports and data collections  8

Detailed descriptions  8

Practicalities  10

Step 3: Assessment of resources and needs  11

Practicalities  11

Step 4: Strategic analysis  12

Evaluation of data sources  12

Framework for development 12

Practicalities  13

Step 5: Writing the INRA report 14

Practicalities  14

WORKSHEET 1  15

WORKSHEET 2  16

WORKSHEET 3  17

WORKSHEET 4  18

WORKSHEET 5  20


Introduction

The Information, Needs and Resources Assessment (INRA) is the first step in establishing a local drugs monitor. It will provide the necessary information to help you decide who should be involved in the development of the monitor, which data and data sources can be used, what each institute or individual can contribute in terms of facilities and expertise and which infrastructure and training needs should be addressed to develop and sustain the monitor.

Implementation of the INRA will stimulate discussion, communication and information exchange between experts and stakeholders about locally relevant objects of monitoring and it helps to establish local ownership of the monitor and to gain government support for its development.

The INRA also facilitates the assessment of a baseline or benchmark situation, which is the subject of the Rapid Situation Assessment (RSA) module. Together, the INRA and RSA reports provide the basic information for the design and planning of the development of your local drugs monitor.

Stepwise approach

The INRA has five consecutive steps, which are described below in general terms of objectives, tasks and practical aspects to consider. The steps can be adapted and amended depending on the specific situation in the relevant local area and the possibilities and operational capacities of the experts performing the INRA.


STEP 1

Identifying relevant people and institutions

Which people and institutes collect, collate or otherwise have information on drug use and drug problems in your city or region or use such information for their work.

STEP 2

Identifying existing information and data sources

What information about the local drug situation already exists, which data sources are already available and what is the nature, scope and coverage of these sources. 

STEP 3

Assessment of resources and needs

Which technical infrastructure, skills and expertise, data collection and research capacities are already available and which need to be developed or improved.

STEP 4

Strategic analysis

The outcomes of the previous steps should be evaluated and assimilated to design a concrete and feasible plan for the development of a local drugs monitor.

STEP 5

Writing the INRA report

The INRA exercise concludes with a report that summarises the results of the inventories and the strategic analysis.

Worksheets

To facilitate implementation, model Worksheets have been added to record the information gathered during the INRA phase. These Worksheets are presented as simple Word templates, but whenever possible it is recommended to transfer these templates to an appropriate database programme (e.g. Microsoft Access), which will make it easier to query, adapt and update the information for future use.

Consistency with national monitoring

Although the concept of a local drugs monitor implies that the objects and methods of surveillance should to be adapted to specific local demands and situations, the Pompidou Group also aims to promote the dissemination of commonly accepted standard indicators for drugs monitoring. For this reason the INRA uses the Multi-city Annual Report Questionnaire (MARQ) of the Pompidou Group as a framework of reference for the assessment of data sources. The MARQ contains standard formats for core indicators that are consistent with similar standards of EMCDDA and UNODC for drugs monitoring at national level.


Getting started

Because the INRA is the first step to establish a local drugs monitor it is important to involve all key experts and stakeholders and build a sense of local “ownership” of the process from the start. This means, informing key experts and stakeholders in advance about the initiative to develop a local drugs monitor and the role of the INRA in this development.

Obtain commitment from the local Government

The start of the INRA should have the commitment of the local Government in order to ensure ongoing support and successful cooperation with local authorities and the staff of relevant services and to gain access to various levels of information.

It is recommended that you use the presentation “Monitoring for policy and practice” as a tool to introduce the concept of local monitoring to those who are responsible for local drugs policy and practice.

Create an Advisory Group

It is important to effectuate the involvement and commitment of local experts and stakeholders by having an advisory group to oversee the INRA process and the subsequent development of the monitor. Depending on the local situation you may ask representatives of an existing body, for example a local drug action team or drug policy coordination group, to act as your advisory board. If such body doesn’t exist, try to form an initial ad-hoc group of experts and stakeholders who will be key players in the use of the local drugs monitor and in the interpretation of its results. 

For practical reasons try to keep this advisory group small in the INRA phase. Later in the development process the advisory group can be extended or subgroups can be formed to coordinate specific tasks.

Inform and ask for support of relevant national authorities

In many countries national authorities and organisations are also key players in local affairs, for example when local authorities have limited executive powers in some aspects of drug policy and practice or when local data can only be extracted from national data sources. If this is the situation in your area these national authorities and organisations might be identified in Step 1 as relevant experts and stakeholders. But even if there is no need to involve national institutions directly, it is important to keep relevant national authorities informed on the initiative to set up a local drugs monitor to obtain additional support for its development, to ensure consistency with national monitoring and to get helpful interventions when you encounter problems. Examples of relevant authorities are the Ministries responsible for the national drug policy, the Permanent Correspondent of the Pompidou Group or the National Focal Point of the REITOX network of EMCDDA.

Practicalities

            Use the PowerPoint Presentation “Concepts and Development of Local Drugs Monitoring” to introduce and explain the objectives of a local drugs monitor and the arguments to carry out the INRA as part of the development process.


Step 1: Identifying relevant individuals and institutions

In order to establish what information on drug use and drug problems already exists in your city, you should first identify the people and institutions that might be able to provide such information. The list below gives examples of such institutions. Not all of these institutions will be present in each city and you need to adapt the list to your local situation. The list is just a starting point and you may find that when you address the institutions they refer you to other sources of information. Obviously it is important that you also identify relevant contact persons in the institutions as you will need these people in the next step to find out what type of information is available.

Relevant institutions for information of drug use

            Health and welfare departments of the local administration

            Local drug action teams or coordination groups

            Universities and research centres

            Drug treatment centres

            Outreach services for “at-risk” groups (e.g., street people, sex-workers or youth)

            Police head-quarters and/or local police stations

            Forensic laboratories and coroners

            Prisons, courts and probation agencies

            Hospitals, emergency rooms and ambulance services

            Psychiatric and mental health services

            Health promotion services

Practicalities

            When you do not have an overview of relevant institutions in your city, you can start by making contact with a few key persons who are dealing with the drug use situation and seek their referral to other individuals and institutions.

            Where there are too many institutions to cover, you may canvas existing services through an initial introductory letter or phone call to identify the most relevant or the most representative institutions to include in the INRA process.

            You can use WORKSHEET 1 as a model for recording contact details, but if you already make use of an electronic address book, it might be a better option to use your own address book format (for example the Contacts folder of Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express). This facilitates communication with the identified persons and institutions and allows an easy exchange of your list of contacts with others when necessary.


Step 2: Identifying existing information and data sources

In Step 2 you make an inventory of existing information about the local drug situation and an inventory of the potential data sources that can be used for the local drugs monitor. This step can be implemented by asking the institutions and contact persons identified in Step 1 the following questions.

            Which reports or statistics about the local drug situation they actually do they use of have they used for their work?

            Which information about drug use and drug-related issues are specified or addressed in their work programmes or annual reports of activities?

            Which studies about the local drug situation they have carried out or commissioned?

            Which data collections related to drug use, drug users and drug problems do they keep and maintain?

            Which aspects of drug use and related issues are covered by these reports and data sources?

            Which conditions and restrictions apply to the use of reports and data sources?

Reports and data collections

Reports already contain information about the local drug situation; data collections are potential sources of such information. You may need both for the Rapid Situation Assessment that follows the INRA.

Relevant reports can be dedicated situation or trend reports, but also survey and research reports about other issues (for example: crime, health or social issues), local policy papers or work programmes and annual reports of treatment centres, health services, the police, prisons, etc. Reports can indicate the existence of data collections, as when information is reported there must be a data collection from which the information is extracted. Reports that are produced in a consistent and regular manner, for example the annual reports of agencies may themselves also be collections of (aggregated) data for your local monitor.

Any collection of data about drug use, drug users or drug-related problems, that is kept, maintained and updated continuously or periodically, can be a potential data source for the local drugs monitor. In general these data collections will be the administrative registers of treatment agencies, health and social services, the police and the judicial system, but they can also be research data files if these are created in the framework of long-term studies or tracking surveys that will continue in the near future. Administrative registers are sometimes already (partly) collated centrally into a local, regional or national register.

Both reports and data collections may help to identify specific objects for surveillance in the local monitor as the topics covered by reports or the items registered in data collections might reflect specific local interests, which should be addressed in local drug monitoring.

Relevant information about your city might also be contained in regional or national reports and local data may be stored and collated in regional or national databases that allow extraction of data at city level. In such cases your inventory should include these regional or national data sources and specify the conditions of extracting local data.

You should list data sources by title (reports) or name (data collections), author (reports), owner or institute responsible for its maintenance (data collections), contact person and type of data source. Types of data sources are: single report, report in a series (for example annual reports of agencies, tracking survey reports) or a data collection.

Detailed descriptions

Although you may need detailed descriptions of the content and methodology of relevant data sources in the design and planning phase of the local monitor, for the INRA it will be sufficient to record some basic characteristics about coverage, content and potential to contribute to the local monitor.

If you have identified several similar data sources, it may be possible to simplify the inventory by providing a common description for a set of data sources. For example: annual reports or client registers of agencies A, B and C.

Coverage

The coverage of reports and data collections can be indicated by keynote descriptions on the following aspects. If necessary and relevant you may add other aspects. 

            For which geographical area is information provided or are data recorded?

            For which population or set of cases is information provided or are data recorded? Hereby refers population not only to people (for example: general population, drug users, clients of a service, arrested persons, prisoners) but also to events or other entities (for example: reported overdoses or HIV infections, non-fatal emergencies, arrests, drug seizures, court convictions).

            For which year or period is information provided (single reports) or for which interval will information be provided (for example: annual reports)? In the case of data collections the time covered will usually be continuous, but in some cases data may only be collected at specific intervals (for example: surveys carried out every two or three years).

Content

Instead of summarising the content or reports and data collections it is easier to check if specific topics are addressed or discussed in reports or data relating to these topics are recorded in data collections. This checklist should at least include the topics that correspond to the standard indicators for drug use and drug problems, which are also included in the Multi-city Annual Report Questionnaire (MARQ) of the Pompidou Group. These topics are:

            Prevalence of drug use among the general population or the school or youth population

            Problematic drug use (including injecting drug use)

            New drug trends

            Drug-related morbidity

            Drug-related mortality

            Drug treatment (including substitution treatment and outreach work)

            Enforcement of drug laws

            Drugs market (availability, price, purity)

The list should be supplemented by other topics that are considered as topics of local interest. For each topic that is covered by the report or data collection you should also try to answer the following questions:

            Is the information provided of a quantitative or qualitative nature (in the case of reports)?

            Are the information provided or the cases recorded differentiated by types of drugs (being used or involved)?

            Are the information provided or the cases recorded about drug users differentiated by socio-demographic attributes (for example: age, gender, level of education)?

            To what extent are definitions of the data and categories used consistent with the corresponding data and categories of the Multi-city Annual Reports Questionnaire (MARQ)?

            Are registered cases tracked or updated after first data entry (in the case of data collections)? This will apply for example when treatment progress is recorded in a treatment register or when judicial follow-up actions are recorded in a police arrests register.

Potential

To assess the potential of data collections for your local monitor you also need to assess conditions and restrictions for using the data, the format in which the data are stored and the options to link cases, within and between separate registers. This amounts to answering the following questions:

            Which conditions and restrictions apply to the use of the data for the purpose of the local monitor? You may omit obvious requirement of confidentiality and anonymity with regard to persons, as this can be considered a universal condition, but you should list other relevant conditions, for example that you cannot use data which can identify individual agencies, that you only can obtain aggregated data upon request or that the use of data is subject to approval by an ethical committee or national authorities, etc.

            How are the data stored? For example in an electronic database, as written records, dossiers or log files.

            Is it possible to link or match records between different registers, for example on the basis of unique case identifiers across agencies? This option could be important to exclude double counting or to calculate capture-recapture population estimates. If matching is possible, it will usually be subject to strict conditions.

Practicalities

            Use WORKSHEET 2 to record all reports and data sources specified by name, owner, contact person and type of data source

            Make a resource library. That is, keep record of your contacts and try to get copies of reports, database descriptions, database manuals, questionnaires and data entry forms pertaining to data sources. They form a resource library of your monitor. Access to this documentation allows you to ask more specific questions and facilitates the communication with your informants. Later you will need the reports for the Rapid Situation Assessment and the documentation of data sources for more detailed inspection in the design phase of the local monitor.

            Organise joint meetings. A practical way to implement Step 2 is to convene one or more meetings with the contact persons or informants within the institutions that you have identified in the previous step. This allows you to introduce and explain the objectives of the local drugs monitor and the role of the INRA in the development process to all your contacts at the same time. For this purpose you can use the PowerPoint Presentation “Concepts and Development of Local Drugs Monitoring”. Joint meetings can also contribute to a sense of common interest and commitment among the information suppliers and they can help to avoid duplications in your inventory.

            Make site visits. Understanding the structure, scope and content of administrative data sources sometimes requires insight in the operational processes that generate the data. It can be useful to assess this with during site visits to the institutions. Such site visits can have the added value that the staff involved feels committed to the development process of the local monitor and this will improve necessary cooperation at a later date.

            Ask purposive questions. Your informants can give you more appropriate answers if you ask concrete and purposive questions. Instead of posing general questions about the drug situation it is better to ask for information and data sources about specific topics and instead of assessing the full content of each data source, it is more economical to ask your informants if specific data and categories, relevant for your local monitor, are included. Worksheets 2 and 3 are also guidance for your inquiries.


Step 3: Assessment of resources and needs

The inventory of existing information and data sources is followed by an assessment of the availability of human and technical resources that are needed to support and sustain the local drugs monitor and the identification of needs that should be resolved in the development of the monitor. The types of resources that you should consider include:

            People willing and able to participate in networks to develop and sustain the local drugs monitor.

            Expertise and skills to develop and implement data collection, data retrieval, estimation methods, analysis and reporting.

            Expertise and skills to develop and implement qualitative research 

            Universities or other research institutes who could offer technical support to epidemiological activities.

            Technical resources to undertake data collection, data manipulation, information exchange and other network activities. For example: computers, database programmes, and software for statistical analysis, Internet and email facilities.

            Level of staffing and financial support for the monitor and its network. This should include the coordination of the network. Staff and finances should also be considered as available if personnel and budgets of existing organisations can be used.

As far as applicable, the availability of resources should be linked to individuals and institutions identified previously in Step 1 or to the data sources identified in Step 2. For each type of resource you should indicate the intended or expected contribution to the monitor activities.

If possible you should also indicate the employability of the resources. Employability here refers to availability combined with realistic potential to use the resource for the local monitor. This requires that you have checked the potential employability by discussing the use of the resources with the people and institutions involved.

When resources are not available, not employable or lack the quality required for the development and maintenance of the local monitor, you should specify this as development needs with an indication of concrete actions that would resolve these shortcomings and constraints. Such actions can vary from further negotiations with institutes about the use of their staff or equipment, the acquisition of computers and software to training of people for specific tasks and enhancing communication and cooperation between organisations.

Practicalities

            Use WORKSHEET 3 as a model to structure your inquiries on resources and needs.

            Start the assessment of resources by first making a list, in consultation with your Advisory Group, of types of resources that in your local situation are considered necessary for the development and upkeep of a drugs monitor. You can then check if these resources are available and employable and if their state of affairs and quality are appropriate for the monitor.

            Do realise that not all apparent gaps in resources result in “needs”. Gaps are only needs if they inhibit the development of an adequate drugs monitor for your city. This too should be assessed in consultation with your Advisory Group.


Step 4: Strategic analysis

In the previous steps you have compiled information about relevant data sources available and the resources that already exist or need to be developed. The purpose of the fourth step is to put this information together, to set priorities regarding identified development needs and to establish realistic goals for the implementation of the local drugs monitor. When setting goals it is important to consider the local objectives and focus of the monitor and the general situation and conditions of your city. Here you should keep in mind that it is better to formulate achievable goals than ambitious goals that cannot be realised.

Step 4 is divided in two parts. The first part concerns an evaluation of your data sources, the second part is about designing a framework for the development of the intended drugs monitor and the third part deals with the formulation of a strategic action plan.

Evaluation of data sources

On the basis of the information obtained in your “fact finding mission” of the previous steps, you should evaluate for each topic that can be an object of surveillance in the local drugs monitor the availability and development needs of relevant data sources. The topics to consider in this evaluation should correspond to those specified in Step 2 and you can specify the results of the evaluation by recording the following aspects.

            Current situation regarding availability, employability, content, coverage and potential of data sources as identified in Step 2.

            Current situation regarding human and technical resources relevant for the topic and related data sources as identified in Step 3.

            Actions required with regard to adaptation or improvement of employability, content, coverage and potential of existing data sources or the development of new data sources.

            Actions required with regard to human and technical resources relevant for the topic and its related data sources.

            Key persons or institutes that can deliver the data or develop and maintain the required data sources.

Once you have completed the evaluation for each topic, you can make an analysis across topics, focussing on potentials, priorities and strategic development.This summary can be presented in the main body text of your INRA report. The summary analysis should be made in consultation with your Advisory Group.

Framework for development

The purpose of this exercise is to propose an organisational structure in which to develop and implement the drugs monitor of your city. In principle you will need two distinct networks and a coordinator to support the monitor.

            An Information Network that is responsible for the collection, retrieval and analysis of data and the presentation of situation and trend reports. The members will be people involved in the actual development and maintenance of data sources and researchers who will analyse the data. Based on its tasks the Information Network is a network of (technical) experts. The members can be identified by name or as institutional representatives.

            An Interpretation Network that is responsible for the assessment of the impact of situations and trends on local policy and practice. The members will be people who are assumed to make use of the monitor results for the development or implementation of local policy and practice in the field of drugs. They are the stakeholders of your local monitor and may represent the local Government (administration), the police, drugs and health services, etc. The members can be identified by name or as institutional representatives.

            The Coordinator should facilitate the cooperation and interaction within and between both networks and supervise the monitoring activities. Ideally the coordinator has experience in policy research as he or she will have an important advisory role in the translation of monitor results into policy and practice and the translation of policy and practice demands in the design and development of data collection and analysis.

Information and Interpretation Networks can coincide when the number of people involved is quite small. When research experts are accepted as advisers in interpretation, they can participate in both networks. 

In proposing an organisational structure you may also indicate methods, procedures and required resources to communicate information and to facilitate decision processes within and between the monitor networks.

Any proposal regarding the organisational framework should be made in consultation with your Advisory Group and the persons or institutions that you will mention in your proposal.

Practicalities

            Use WORKSHEET 4 as a model to record the results of the analysis for each data source.

            Use WORKSHEET 5 as a model to present your proposal about the organisation of the monitor network(s).

 


Step 5: Writing the INRA report

The purpose of the INRA exercise is to produce an inventory of information and data sources and a list of actions that are needed to the develop the local drugs monitor. The INRA report makes the results of this inventory accessible for all people involved.

After a general introduction about the concept of a local drugs monitor and the arguments to develop this monitor for your city, you only need to write a concise summary of the steps of the INRA process as the results of the inventory can be presented by adding the worksheets that you have completed[2]. Keep in mind that the INRA report is a practical work document for the local experts and stakeholders; it is not intended as a publication for an external audience and would not require fanciful artwork of thorough editing.

Practicalities

            Use the “Model INRA report” as a template for writing your report

            Base the initiative to develop a drugs monitor for your city as far as possible to existing local policy papers and locally acknowledged problems.

            Update your INRAresources library. Your INRA report is just a snapshot in time. Keeping track of relevant data sources is a dynamic process and the results of the INRA exercise should be updated regularly. The same applies to your resource library of questionnaires, forms or data collection procedures.


WORKSHEET 1

Institutes and contact persons for information and data sources

Replace the texts in italics by your data. Add a number to each institute, so you can use them as reference numbers in other worksheets when needed. Extend the table to list more institutes by copying an empty numbered row and pasting it at the bottom of the table. Column headers will appear automatically at the top of each page.

If there are more contact persons per institute, insert additional rows in the column of coordinates.


No.

Coordinates

Fields of activity

Expertises

(Institute)          

(Contact person)

(Function)

(Address)

(Tel.)

(Fax)

(E-mail)

(Institute)          

(Contact person)

(Function)

(Address)

(Tel.)

(Fax)

(E-mail)

(Institute)          

(Contact person)

(Function)

(Address)

(Tel.)

(Fax)

(E-mail)

(Institute)          

(Contact person)

(Function)

(Address)

(Tel.)

(Fax)

(E-mail)

(E-mail)


WORKSHEET 2

Existing reports and data sources about the local drug situation

Add a number to each report or data source, so you can use them as reference numbers in other Worksheets when needed. Link reports and data sources to contacts by listing the appropriate reference numbers from Worksheets 1.

Extend the overview to list more reports and data sources by copying the table for each report or data source. Use one page per report or data source to avoid that descriptions split across pages.

For reports and data sources that cover other topics than the standard indicator topics as listed in the table, replace (Other) by a short description. For example: risk perceptions, opinions about drugs, perceived nuisance, etc.


No.

Report / data source

Type

Report

(Mark as appropriate)

Contacts reference

Data source

Coverage

Area

Population

Year / Time span

Content

Topics covered

Quanti-tative

Qualita-tive

Differentiation

Consistency with MARQ

Tracking of cases

Drug types

Attribu-tes of cases

Good

Mode-rate

Poor

(Mark as appropriate)

Prevalence

Problem use

New trends

Morbidity

Mortality

Treatment

Law enforcement

Drugs market

(Other)

(Other)

(Other)

Potential

Conditions / restrictions

Data storage

Linking with other data sources


WORKSHEET 3

Existing resources and resource development needs

Prepare this worksheet by first making a list, in consultation with your Advisory Group, of relevant resources to consider. You can extend the table to add more resources if necessary. Column headers will appear automatically at the top of each page.

Describe the type of resource and link resources as far as possible to the institutes or data sources to which they apply by listing the appropriate reference numbers from Worksheets 1 or 2. Resources may apply to several contacts and data sources.


Contacts refer.

Data source refer.

Type of resource

Specifications

Employability

Development needs

Specifications

Employability

Development needs

Specifications

Employability

Development needs

Specifications

Employability

Development needs

Specifications

Employability

Development needs


WORKSHEET 4

Evaluation data sources for the topics to be covered by the local monitor

The topics included in the table below should correspond to those specified in Step 2. You can extend the table by adding more other topics if necessary. Column headers will appear automatically at the top of each page.

Summarise the results of Step 2 (data sources) and Step 3 (resources) under “current situation” and specify proposed adaptations, improvements and development needs under “actions required”. Indicate responsibility for required actions by institute(s) or contact reference numbers from Worksheet 1.

 


Topic

Data sources

Results of Step 2

Resources

Results of step 3

Responsibility for actions

(Contacts reference)

Prevalence of drug use

Current situation

Actions required

Problem drug use (including IDU)

Current situation

Actions required

New drug trends

Current situation

Actions required

Drug-related morbidity

Current situation

Actions required

Drug-related mortality

Current situation

Actions required

Drug treatment

Current situation

Actions required

Drug law enforcement

Current situation

Actions required

Drugs market

Current situation

Actions required

(Other)

Current situation

Actions required


WORKSHEET 5

Framework for development of the local drugs monitor

Make use of the model chart below as a model for the proposed organisation of the monitor networks in your city. Indicate institutes to be involved as data sources, research agencies or stakeholders in the square boxes. List names of people representing these institutes as network members in the circles. You can also use contacts reference numbers from Worksheet 1. Specify at the bottom of the chart which institute or person will be in charge of the overall coordination of the networks.




Report Template Information, Needs and Resources Assessment

Information, Needs and Resources Assessment



 City (Region), year


Organisation responsible for carrying out the INRA


Acknowledgements

Acknowledge active contributions from people and institutions that have assisted in carrying out the INRA process.

Abbreviations

It is likely that you will use in the INRA report a lot of abbreviations for local organisations etc. As you cannot assume that everyone is familiar with these abbreviations it is recommended to provide a list of abbreviations in alphabetical order.

INRA            Information, Needs and Resources Assessment

MARQ          Multi-city Annual Reports Questionnaire of the Pompidou Group

RSA              Rapid Situation Assessment


Introduction

Background

Describe the background of the initiative to develop a local drugs monitor for your city or region. Refer as far as possible to local policy papers or acknowledged local problems that indicate the need for a local monitor.

Conceptual framework

Explain the general approach of local drugs monitoring as promoted by the Pompidou Group. This approach is stated in keywords in the PowerPoint Presentation “Concepts and Development of Local Drugs Monitoring”. Focus on the argument to provide situation and trend information for policy and practice combined with procedures for interpretation and decisions on intervention actions. For details you can refer to Pompidou Group documents.

Development process

Explain here the general outline of the development process of the Pompidou Group approach. This outline has the following phases: INRA, RSA, decisions about scope and indicators of the Local Monitor and making concrete implementation plans. For details you can refer to Pompidou Group documents.

INRA

Explain here the INRA process. This can be a summary of the stepwise approach described in the INRA module.

            Keep the Introduction concise. One or two pages should do.


Step 1. Key persons and institutions

Give a short picture of who is who, and who is doing what, with regard to drug policy and practice in your city. Try to present the overview as simple organisation chart(s), indicating types of activity and existing governing, managing, coordination and cooperation structures. Focus should be on the organisational structures, not on the people representing these structures. If necessary, add an overview of (other) types of relevant services available in the city that are not included in the organisation chart(s). Indicate also if local organisations are branches or departments of national structures.  For details you can refer to Worksheet 1.

Step 2. Information and data sources

Information

Provide a summary of the results of Step 2 by indicating on which topics or aspects of the drug situation information is already available and which specific issues or problems about the local situation emerge from existing reports. Also indicate which main gaps in available information are mentioned or acknowledged in reports or policy papers. For details you can refer to Worksheet 2.

Data sources

Provide a summary of the results of Step 2 by indicating the main data sources available and main problems regarding content and coverage that you have identified in data sources. For details you can refer to Worksheet 3.

Step 3. Resources and needs

Provide a summary of the results of Step 3 by indicating to what extent the human and technical resources necessary for the local monitor are available and which resources need to be developed or improved. Also indicate which gaps in resources are already mentioned or acknowledged in reports or policy papers. For details you can refer to Worksheet 4.

Step 4. Strategic analysis

Evaluation of data sources

Provide here on the basis of the evaluation of data sources by topic a summary across topics, focussing on potentials, priorities and strategic development. For details you can refer to Worksheet 5.

Framework for development

Formulate your proposal for the organisational structure in which to develop and implement the drugs monitor of your city. Insert the networks organisation chart of Worksheet 6. I f applicable, also propose methods, procedures and required resources to communicate information and to facilitate decision processes within and between the monitor networks.


Annexes

Worksheet 1

Worksheet 2

Worksheet 3

Worksheet 4

Worksheet 5

Resource Library

Include here an overview of reports, questionnaires and forms collected while undertaking the INRA.

Advisory Group meetings

It is recommended that you include keynotes from the meetings of the Advisory Group.



[1] Ruud Bless (coordinating consultant), Mark Vanderveken (Belgium), Philip Lazarov, Momtchil Vassilev (Bulgaria), Kyriacos Veresies (Cyprus), Ladislav Csémy, Hana Orlikova (Czech Republic), Mari Jarvelaid, Aare Raudsepp (Estonia), Abdala Toufik (France), Manina Terzidou (Greece), Jozef Lipták (Hungary), Simon Comer, Mary O’Brien, Hamish Sinclair (Ireland), Carlo Bertorello (Italy), Jacek Sekiewicz (Poland), Miguel Casaca, Valentina Chitas, Jorge Negreiros (Portugal), Andrey Karpets, Galina Korchagina (Russian Federation), Alojz Nociar, Lucia Sutorova (Slovak Republic), Dirk Korf (Netherlands), Björn Hibell (Sweden)

[2] If you have recorded the results of your inventory by using a database programme like MS Access, you can use the report facilities of that programme to generate overviews that are similar to the format of the Worksheets.