Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dey, P.
Right arrow Articles by Donmall, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Dey, P.
Right arrow Articles by Donmall, M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Journal of Public Health Medicine 24:38-42 (2002)
© 2002 Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom

Randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of a primary health care liaison worker in promoting shared care for opiate users


Paola Dey
Eleanor Roaf
Stuart Collins
Heidi Shaw
Robert Steele
Michael Donmall

Centre for Cancer Epidemiology, Kinnaird Road, Withington, Manchester M20 4QL. paola.dey{at}cce.man.ac.uk
Bury and Rochdale Health Authority, Silver Street, Bury BL9 0EN
Centre for Cancer Epidemiology, Kinnaird Road, Withington, Manchester M20 4QL
Centre for Health Promotion, 188 Buxton Road, Stockport SK2 0AE
Liverpool Health Authority, Hamilton House, 24 Pall Mall, Liverpool L3 6AL
University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PP

Background Recent national guidelines emphasize the requirement for all general practitioners to manage drug users within a shared care scheme and suggest that a primary health care liaison worker (PHCLW) may facilitate these arrangements. We undertook a group-randomized, randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of a PHCLW in promoting shared care.

Methods Primary health care teams in Stockport Health Authority, North West England, were randomly allocated to either an intervention arm, who were offered the services of a PHCLW, or to a control arm, who were offered standard support from the community drug team (CDT). The proportion of CDT clients with a history of regular opiate misuse who were in shared care 12 months after randomization was compared across study arms.

Results Eighteen (24.0 per cent) of the 75 CDT clients in the intervention arm but none of the 80 CDT clients in the control arm were in shared care at 12 months ({chi}2 = 9.37, df = 1, p < 0.01; 95 per cent confidence interval 8.6–39.4 per cent).

Conclusion A PHCLW can significantly increase the number of CDT clients in shared care arrangements.

Keywords: drug addiction, shared care, organization and delivery of health services, randomized controlled trial


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 cfpHome page
M. Kahan, L. Wilson, D. Midmer, A. Ordean, and H. Lim
Short-term outcomes in patients attending a primary care-based addiction shared care program
Can Fam Physician, November 1, 2009; 55(11): 1108 - 1109.e5.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.