Outpatient Addiction Treatment Clinic for Children and Adolescents: Programme and Activity Structure Model
Abstract
In view of the development of the epidemiological situation in substance use among children and adolescents and the results of needs assessment studies, the management of the Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, and General University Hospital in Prague, resolved to propose a design of an outpatient addiction treatment clinic for children and adolescents. A draft model of the care to be provided by this healthcare facility was also developed for this purpose.
The plan was subsequently endorsed by the management of the General University Hospital and also received support from the General Health Insurance Company and the Prague City Hall. These circumstances made it possible to test the outpatient facility on the basis of a pilot project run from 1 September 2014 to 31 June 2015.
The evaluation of this trial stage included the revision of the provisional model and structure of the facility described in this paper. It involves an outpatient programme featuring two core segments: (1) intake assessment/diagnosis, screening, and motivational work followed by (2) the treatment and rehabilitation services provided by the outpatient clinic.
The partial components of the programme represent the wide-ranging scope of outpatient interventions. The facility builds on a long tradition of the development of health services which dates back to 1957, when Jan Mečíř founded the first specialised centre of this kind in our country.
It was shown that the modified treatment model seems to be feasible and useful for this domain of outpatient addictological care. Some salient features of its practical application, such as case management as an efficient method for the coordination of care, were demonstrated.