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A local and regional Alcohol and Drugs Monitor in the Netherlands: a tale of three cities
Author(s) -
MHEEN H.,
TOET J.,
KNIBBE R. A.,
GARRETSEN H. F. L.,
SPRUIT I. P.,
BERG M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1080/09595230600657774
Subject(s) - addiction , alcohol addiction , business , qualitative research , addiction treatment , environmental health , qualitative property , population , substance use , medicine , regional science , public relations , political science , geography , psychiatry , sociology , computer science , social science , machine learning
Local and regional policymakers, care providers and prevention workers involved in addiction and addiction care need timely and reliable information. As few data on substance use are available at a local or regional level, an integrated local or regional monitoring system for alcohol and drugs (MAD) was developed. The MAD consists of four modules: a local social and information map, analyses of registration data of (addiction) care organisations, a local/regional survey among the general population and a community‐based drug monitoring system aimed at collecting data on hard drug users. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are used. This paper presents an overview of the MAD results with respect to alcohol and illicit drug use. Both quantitative and qualitative results show a substantial variation between regions, even in a country as small as the Netherlands. The study shows that a monitoring system can be an important source of information for local addiction policy, care and prevention.