New Projects

The Adelaide Primary Health Network (PHN) has contracted NCETA to undertake a research project to inform the appropriateness, effectiveness, efficiency and quality of the PHN’s alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services commissioning activity in relation to substance use among older persons (over the age of 50 years). The Project has just commenced and will conclude early in 2021.

The final project report will include recommendations to inform the commissioning of AOD treatment services by the PHN over the short term (up to 2 years) and medium term (3-5 years). These treatment services will aim to address the AOD treatment needs of older people with an emphasis on alcohol, opioids/analgesics and anxiolytic substance use. In carrying out the service mapping, the NCETA team will be giving particular consideration to the needs of hard to reach or vulnerable population groups such as:

• People with disabilities
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities
• People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
• People that identify with trans and gender diverse communities.

 NCETA will undertake a series of activities including:

• Existing service mapping
• Consultations with key stakeholders
• Research examining relevant qualitative and quantitative data sets
• A planning exercise to identify service gaps
• An analysis of findings and development of a detailed report of the findings.

The quantitative data to be examined includes:

• National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2016
• ATODS NMDS
• NOPSAD
• ADIS
• Emergency Department Presentations
• Admitted Patient Activity (hospitals)
• Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) data
• ABS data maps.