Contact information

Source of referral to the reporting agency

Source of referral 1998/99 In 1998/99, of the 9060 individuals whose source of referral was reported, 40 per cent were referred to the reporting agency by a General Practitioner. A similar proportion (39 per cent) were self referrals. r Data for years 95/96-97/98 are revised.

Location of initial contact and initial assessment

Agency staff may make initial contact with drug users in a variety of settings, not always at the agency itself. Information on the locations where the initial contacts and assessments are made, providing a snapshot into the way services for drug users are delivered, is presented in Tables 10 and 11 (35 and 36 for area of residence). This information is obtained from non-medical (SMR23) forms only.

In 1998/99, of the 4943 individuals where this information was provided, 61 per cent of initial contacts were made in person at the agency itself. Twenty-one per cent of initial contacts were made over the telephone (Table 10).

Three quarters of the initial assessments were carried out at the agency. Nine per cent of the initial assessments were carried out in the home of the patient/client, mainly in the more rural areas of Scotland (Table 11).