Bryant Joanne, Saxton Melissa, Madden Annie, Bath Nicky, Robinson Suzanne
National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2008 Mar;27(2):130-7. doi: 10.1080/09595230701829397.
Consumer participation in decision-making about service planning is common in certain health services in Australia but is thought to be largely underdeveloped in drug treatment services. This paper (1) describes the current practices within Australian drug treatment services that aim to include consumers in service planning and provision; and (2) determines how much consumers know about the existing opportunities for involvement.
Sixty-four randomly selected service providers (representing 64 separate services) completed interviews about the current arrangements for consumer participation within their services (response rate = 82%). A total of 179 consumers completed interviews assessing their knowledge of the consumer participation activities available at the service they attended.
Consumer participation activities were not uncommon in drug treatment services, although the existing activities were concerned largely with providing information to or receiving information from consumers. Activities that included consumers in higher forms of involvement, such as those in which consumers took part in decision-making, were largely uncommon. Consumers had a considerable lack of knowledge about the participation activities available to them, revealing a lack of communication between providers and consumers.
While service providers were making efforts to engage consumers in service planning and provision (despite the general lack of State or Commonwealth policy directives and extra funding to do so), these appear ineffectual because of poor communication between providers and consumers. As a starting point, a critical part of any meaningful consumer participation initiative must include systems to ensure that consumers know about available opportunities.
在澳大利亚的某些医疗服务中，消费者参与服务规划决策很常见，但在药物治疗服务中，普遍认为这方面的发展还很不足。本文（1）描述了澳大利亚药物治疗服务中旨在让消费者参与服务规划和提供的当前做法；（2）确定消费者对现有参与机会的了解程度。
随机选取64名服务提供者（代表64个独立服务机构），就其服务中消费者参与的当前安排进行访谈（回复率 = 82%）。共有179名消费者完成访谈，评估他们对所就诊服务机构中消费者参与活动的了解情况。
消费者参与活动在药物治疗服务中并不罕见，尽管现有活动主要是向消费者提供信息或从消费者那里获取信息。让消费者以更高形式参与的活动，比如消费者参与决策的活动，在很大程度上并不常见。消费者对他们可参与的活动了解相当匮乏，这表明提供者与消费者之间缺乏沟通。
虽然服务提供者在努力让消费者参与服务规划和提供（尽管普遍缺乏州或联邦的政策指令以及额外资金来支持此事），但由于提供者与消费者之间沟通不畅，这些努力似乎没有效果。作为一个起点，任何有意义的消费者参与倡议的关键部分必须包括确保消费者了解可用机会的系统。
