The core element of the protocol is an agency inventory, a questionnaire to be completed by each agency describing its operational framework, characteristics and services provided. The inventory includes administrative information on staffing, management and funding, and data on the range of facilities and services offered, quality standards and data-collection routines. It also contains information on the target population and on new drug-use patterns that have come to the attention of the agency’s staff in the course of their work with current drug users. The protocol includes a technical section that gives instructions on how to complete the inventory and defines the terms used.

 

Part I of this booklet outlines the development and piloting of the protocol. It lists core services representing different areas of activity at harm reduction agencies across Europe and describes different approaches to monitoring the level of access to these services. It also describes the field test conducted in Summer/Autumn 2007 with 15 voluntary agencies from Austria, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Spain, Poland and Portugal, as well as by the main harm reduction agency in Iran, and presents an evaluation of the results. Part II contains the final version of the data-collection protocol.

 

1. Working Group on Data Collection within the Correlation network (2008) Data collection protocol for specialist harm reduction agencies. Amsterdam: Foundation Regenboog.