The Health Service Executive Social Inclusion-Addiction Services, Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO) Dublin North City & County (DNCC), in collaboration with the six Drug and Alcohol Task Forces in the region coordinate and provide a range of supports to individuals around drug use and related health issues under the National Drugs Strategy (2107-2025). The HSE CHO DNCC and the Drug & Alcohol Task Forces collaborated on seeking interventions to respond to a significant increase in powder cocaine use and the emergency of crack cocaine use as an acute issue for drug and related health services. This collaboration identified that staff in drug services lacked confidence in dealing with problem cocaine use among both powder and crack users.

Following a process to procure a specialist organisation to address this skill and confidence deficit, Janus Solutions (a drug service based in Brixton, London) were selected to deliver training on ‘The Resonance Factor,’ a treatment approach which was developed by them. “The Resonance Factor Model provides an effective tool-kit that enables the worker to raise awareness immediately about the service user’s relationship with their drug of choice” (Janus Solutions) Janus Solutions delivered a 1-year training programme for 18 selected practitioners based in CHO DNCC services (minimum 2 selected from each Drug Task Force area, following assessment process) working directly with people seeking support to address their cocaine use. The training programme, which commenced in September 2019, was delivered over 5 consecutive days of in person training; 4 x 1 day quarterly follow up training/process groups and online/phone individual supervision; 2 of which were held in person and the remaining 2, online (due to Covid-19). Upon completion of the training, CCS Consultants were engaged to undertake an independent evaluation of this programme as required under the terms of the state funding provided.

The overall purpose of this evaluation was to assess the value of The Resonance Factor training programme for practitioners working in frontline drug services and make recommendations for future applications of the training model. It required an evaluation of the participants’ rationale for enrolling, their experience, the learning achieved and sought to establish if changes in practice resulted from the training and the impact of such changes.