In 2009, the United Kingdom, Italy (Liguria and Lombardy), Spain (Galicia), Hungary, Romania and Poland launched works on the European quality standards in drug prevention. The first step in the project was to collect and analyze the existing European standards. In the second step, consultations were held by means of the online Delphi survey, which included almost 500 drug prevention specialists across Europe.

During the June meeting, organized by ASL Milano, the results of the online Delphi survey and the focus groups were discussed. Representatives of each country presented their outcomes and the project leaders of Liverpool John Moores University summarised the research stage of the project. In the next stage, the drafts standards will be field tested. The final version of the standards is due to be released in autumn 2010. The final document will be published by the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

In April this year, intensive works were in progress on completing a grant application under the “Drug Prevention and Information” programme, which aims to continue the European Prevention Standards project. If the funding is awarded, in 2011 more than a dozen European countries will start implementing the standards. Poland along with Italy  (ASL2 Savona) will co-lead the standards training component.

Photos from the meeting