This report details a project undertaken by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing to develop a national Needle and Syringe Program data set and associated reporting instrument to facilitate consistent and comparable data collection and reporting. It provides a description of the methodology used and includes a copy of the data set and reporting instrument developed as part of the project. The report includes a number of recommendations regarding the future development and expansion of the data set. 'Developing a nationally consistent data set for needle and syringe programs' is the result of consultations with service providers, state and territory representatives and the Australian government.
Authored by AIHW.
Published 29 January 2007; ISBN-13 978 1 74024 610 1; AIHW cat. no. HWI 90; 66pp.; $27.00
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Development of a nationally consistent data
set for NSPs
Scope and limitations
Deliverables
Timelines
Report structure
Methodology
Data development principles
Project stages
Establishing the Data Working Group
Site visits
Selection of candidate data items
Development of data specifications in
METeOR
Development of the reporting instrument
Pilot testing of the reporting
instrument
The needle and syringe program data dictionary
List of data elements in the NSP data
dictionary
The needle and syringe program reporting
instrument
Lessons learnt and recommendations
Lessons learnt
Clarity of performance information
required
Relevance of performance information
required
Recommendations
That the NSP Working group undertake a
review of the current COAG Illicit Drug
Diversion Initiative NSP supporting
measures for current relevance with a view
to possible enhancements
That sufficient time be given to states
and territories to make the necessary
process and system changes required to
enable implementation of the NSP data set
across all NSP outlets in their
jurisdictions
That the NSP Working Group investigate
opportunities to incrementally expand the
NSP data set to include other data
considered relevant for current NSP
service delivery
That a study of national reporting of
NSP client data be undertaken by the NSP
Working Group to determine the feasibility
of developing a nationally consistent NSP
client data set
End matter
Appendix 1: Supporting measures as specified in
the 2003-2004 Federal Budget document
Appendix 2: List of Needle and Syringe Program
Working Group members
