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You have found 52 entries after clicking on a search link (usually the MORE information link) in a matrix cell. Starting with the most recently added or updated entries, the list shows in orange the type of entry, year the original document was published (or if one of our own documents, the year last updated), and the type of file you will download when you click on the title. In blue is the document’s title followed by a brief description.

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STUDY 2005 PDF file 104Kb
Phone reminders cut 'no shows' by nearly two-thirds

By introducing a phoned reminder, an alcohol treatment clinic in Liverpool cut by nearly two-thirds the number of patients who simply failed to turn up for assessment, avoiding wastage of staff time due to missed appointments.

ABSTRACT 2008 HTM file
Improving public addiction treatment through performance contracting: the Delaware experiment

Instead of telling addiction treatment providers what to do to qualify for funding, the US state of Delaware set recruitment and engagement targets and largely left the methods up to the services. Result: more and more engaging treatment without stifling innovation.

STUDY 2009 HTM file
Relating counselor attributes to client engagement in England

The most wide-ranging investigation of the organisational health of British treatment services found clients engaged best when services fostered communication, participation and trust among staff, had a clear mission, but were open to new ideas and practices.

STUDY 2008 HTM file
Reducing alcohol harm: health services in England for alcohol misuse

Official audit of work by the Department of Health and NHS to address the health effects of alcohol misuse. Describes a system whose infrastructure is clearly inadequate compared to the size of the task, but one recently taking steps in the right direction.

OFFCUT 2003 PDF file 149Kb
Untreated controls set benchmark for alcohol treatment

A compilation of drinking changes among untreated control groups in randomised alcohol treatment trials shows that at follow up on average about a fifth have become abstinent and that their consumption has been reduced by a statistically significant 14%.

OFFCUT 2003 PDF file 134Kb
Is your measure of success what matters to the client, or what matters to everyone else?

How a patient assesses their own well-being can be poorly related to conventional outcomes such as substance use. Using quality of life as a benchmark would often give a different impression of whether one treatment or service is better than another.

SERIES OF ARTICLES 2006 PDF file 6115Kb
Manners Matter

Five-part series not so much on what treatment services do, but how they do it. Conclusion: the same human qualities which make life better outside treatment make it better within - empathy, understanding, respect, responsiveness, caring persistence.

REVIEW 2004 PDF file 909Kb
The power of the welcoming reminder

Part 1 of the Manners Matter series. In seemingly mundane tasks like reminding patients of appointments and checking how they are doing after they leave, individualised and welcoming communications characterise retention-enhancing services.

REVIEW 2005 PDF file 813Kb
The motivational hallo

Part 3 of the Manners Matter series investigates motivational interviewing, the most influential counselling style in addiction treatment. At first we couldn't believe what we'd found - but it really has worked best without a manual.

REVIEW 2006 PDF file 1464Kb
Motivational arm twisting: contradiction in terms?

Part 4 of the Manners Matter series asks whether motivational interviewing can overcome the hostile prison environment and the distrust of youngsters, drink drivers and other offenders pressured into counselling by the criminal justice system.


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