The Polish system of collecting data on users entering drug treatment functioning up to 2014 did not meet the EMCDDA requirements. It is due to the fact that data came exclusively from inpatient clinics and in a number of cases there was no precise information on the primary substance of choice. Moreover, there was no information on the way and frequency of drug use. Consequently, the Information Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction launched works on designing a new statistical system which would comply with European standards. The following documents necessary to implement monitoring were designed or adapted to the Polish conditions:
- monitoring protocol,
- questionnaire (paper version),
- questionnaire (electronic version),
- ancillary questionnaires for both versions of the tool,
- questionnaire manual.
Collecting data under the new TDI system has been in progress since 2008 in the framework of the pilot project which was designed to identify the most common errors in questionnaire completion and validate the data collection tools.
Collecting drug treatment data
Article 24b of the Act of 29 July 2005 on counteracting drug addiction obliges drug treatment and rehabilitation units to collaborate with the National Bureau for Drug Prevention in terms of collecting and reporting information on drug patients to the National Bureau.
The scope and manner of the abovementioned cooperation is defined in the Regulation of the Minister of Health of 17 October 2013 on the scope and manner of cooperation among drug treatment and rehabilitation units with the National Bureau for Drug Prevention.
The Treatment Demand Indicator (TDI) is one of the 5 key indicators developed by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). It provides for collecting and analysing data on the population of drug users entering treatment as well as making comparisons between the EU Member States.
The drug treatment data are one of the crucial sources used to monitor the epidemiology of drug addiction. The data provide a picture of the drug scene and its dynamics. Thanks to the monitoring it is possible to follow trends in terms of drug use patterns, sociodemographics, geographical variations of the problem as well as some social and health consequences.
Managers of drug treatment and rehabilitation units who wish to participate in the process of collecting the TDI data first send an official letter to the Director of the National Bureau for Drug Prevention with contact details of a staff member responsible for liaising with the National Bureau on a regular basis. Following the letter, the National Bureau assigns the drug treatment unit a unique code, which is entered in the system and from now on will be used in the monitoring process.
