Evaluating the service provision for ethnic minorities in Islington in the treatment of substance misuse

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how local drug services use their senior staff to respond to emerging ethnic groups presenting to treatment using flexible thinking and innovative processes. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology was a case study design that used a semi-structured questionnaire that looked at two drug services and their staff’s influence on service delivery in different boroughs of east London. Findings – The research found very innovative findings from the two boroughs. The boroughs had different racial mixes and therefore differing populations presenting to their local drug services. However, they used flexible approaches to structure their services to engage with emerging ethnic minority populations in drug treatment. From the findings, these different approaches and structures of providing drug treatment were very important. Approaches, for example, of clinical staff offering a “rapid assessment” are particularly important in engaging and retaining ethnic minority populations. Also, using flexible thinking within the staff team enables drug services to adapt treatments to be flexible in responding to emerging ethnic populations. Practical implications – This paper shows that thinking in designing approaches to drug treatment shows that ethnic minority populations can be successfully engaged in drug treatment. This has implications for drug treatment nationally and across Europe where there are “emerging” ethnic populations presenting for drug treatment. Originality/value – This paper shows that drug services can adapt and change to their different ethnic minority populations if they can able to be flexible in their clinical approach to service provision.