Mandatory drug and alcohol treatment orders for improving health outcomes for people involved with the justice system

At NESSIE we have been busy preparing for new reviews we will be working on over the next year. In this blog we are putting the spotlight on one of these in conjunction with a project lead, Dr Emma France from the University of Stirling. This project includes working on two complementary evidence syntheses at the same time. The review will bring together multiple sources of evidence with the aim of creating best evidence for use in both policy and practice.

What is the focus of the project?

People who are convicted for an offence are much more likely to have drug and/or alcohol use problems than the general population (SAMHSA, 2023). Short-term custodial (prison) sentences are not considered to be effective as a means of rehabilitation because they don’t address the issues impacting on the lives of those involved including experiencing homelessness or poor mental health (Scottish Government, 2023). Alternative approaches to custodial sentences are therefore required and participating in drug and alcohol treatment orders is one option. Dr France also highlights that:

“Whilst these treatment orders have been evaluated to see if they help reduce reoffending rates they haven’t been evaluated in relation to the impact on health”.

What is a drug or alcohol treatment order?

A treatment order requires people involved with the justice system to have drug and/or alcohol use treatment and this can be used as an alternative to prison. Treatment orders can involve a range of components including drug or alcohol use testing or monitoring, some form of talking or psychological therapy (such as counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy), use of medication, attending courts that specialise in drug or alcohol issues and use of programmes in the community such as the 12-step programme.

What is the aim of the project?

We aim to search for research evidence that looks at whether treatment orders improve the health and well-being of the people participating. We also want to know if this differs depending on a person’s characteristics such as their age or where they live. Finally, we also aim to find out what helps the delivery of treatment orders and what factors make it difficult. We want to include research evidence that has looked at this from the perspectives of people who have received treatment orders, family members (or significant others) and staff either in the justice system or those who provide treatment such as health and social care professionals.

We will be using this blog site to keep you updated on the progress of the review so why not subscribe to our blog by leaving your details on the right-hand side of the page.

References:

SAMHSA. National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) Releases. 2022. (Accessed 14 November, 2023).

Scottish Government. Review of community sentencing options for people with substance use problems: A summary of key findings. Scotland; 2023. (Accessed 14 November, 2023).

Blog by Dr Katie Thomson