Workbook 3.3: Best practice

The Government Plan for Combating Drugs and Addictive Behaviours 2013-17 (MILDT 2013) address quality assurance as it aims at basing public action on observation, research and evaluation and reinforcing training strategy. Under the prevention and care strategical pillars, it defines quality assurance objectives: "Promoting Evidence-Based Preventive Strategies", especially through the creation of an Interministerial Commission for the Prevention of Addictive Behaviours (CIPCA), and "Improving the Quality of Healthcare for Patients receiving Opiate Substitution Treatment and Increasing the Accessibility".
In France, quality assurance in Drug Demand Reduction (prevention, risk reduction, treatment and rehabilitation) builds on specific advocacy, guidelines or trainings from professional societies or organisations or public health institutions but it is not strongly institutionally structured nor imposed. Promoting quality assurance is in the remits of institutions: (i) the Health Promotion and Prevention Division within the National Public Health Agency (formerly the INPES), (ii) The French National Authority for Health (Haute autorité de santé - HAS). As for risk reduction and treatment, different guidelines exist on: (i) Opioid Substitution Treatment, (ii) Early intervention and risk/harm reduction for crack or free base users, (iii) Clinics for young drug users and (iv) Treatment of cocaine users. However, their implementation is not compulsory: there is no formal prerequisite of fulfilling guidelines to get support or subsidies. The compliance to these guidelines is not as a label. Professional federations are also engaged in developing quality and professional supports: the new portal on addictions for health professionals is an example: https://intervenir-addictions.fr. [Extract]