Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO)

Interventions suitable for

Criminal Justice social work clients who have been jointly assessed as suitable by both a DTTO nurse and DTTO social worker.

Programme Title and Provider

Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO)

Details of all Specific national or local scheme/intervention(s) available

A Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO) is a court order that is aimed at assisting offenders to reduce their drug use and related offending. The order is managed by a partnership between the Criminal Justice Services and NHS Tayside (TSMS).

Before being placed on a Drug Treatment and Testing Order, the offender must give agreement, and must be willing to:

accept treatment for drug misuse;

be frequently and randomly drug tested;

attend court on at least a monthly basis so that the Sheriff can review progress;

be supervised by the DTTO workers (Social Work and Health Staff).

Interventions include:

Assessment

Harm reduction

Health promotion

Advice and information

Individual counselling

Detoxification programmes

Tolerance testing

Specialist medical treatment service

Drug testing

Referrals to other agencies/liaison with other services.

Possible Outcomes

The objectives of a Drug Treatment and Testing Order are to:

Reduce or eliminate an offender’s dependency or propensity to misuse drugs

Achieve positive changes in the scale and frequency of drug related offending

Other possible outcomes include:

service users may have improved their physical health

service users may have improved their psychological and emotional wellbeing

service users may have improved their quality of life

service users may have reduced their risk-taking behaviour/changed their method of use

services users may have increased their self-confidence and self-esteem

Process for Assessment and/or inclusion in scheme/intervention

Legislative Criteria: The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 makes it clear that a Drug Treatment and Testing Order may only be imposed where the court is satisfied that:

The offender is dependent on or has propensity to misuse drugs.

The dependency or propensity requires and may be susceptible to treatment.

The offender is a suitable person to be subject to an order.

There is no legal definition of a suitable person, but it is suggested that suitability is determined by such factors as motivation to address drug dependency and sufficient stability of location and circumstances, to enable both supervision and treatment to take effect. In order to inform the court on the suitability of such an order a request for a Drug Treatment and Testing Assessment should be made allowing a period of six weeks. A joint assessment will be undertaken by Criminal Justice and NHS to determine suitability. The DTTO nurse and DTTO social worker will undertake a joint assessment of suitability to include:

Whether an Order is indicated by the level of offending and the link between offending and substance misuse;

The individual’s suitability for a Drug treatment and Testing Order

Likely length of Order (usually 2 years)

Any outstanding issues or complex needs