Perth & Kinross
DETAILS
Local Authority area:
Perth & Kinross
Primary Courts of relevance:
Perth Sheriff Court and Perth Justice of the Peace Court
All information provided by:
Perth & Kinross Community Justice Partnership
Perth & Kinross Community Justice Information
Published: 16 November 2022
The information on this page has been provided by Community Justice Partnerships. Community Justice Scotland is not responsible for the accuracy of the information and is unable to respond to direct queries. All such queries in respect of the information shown on this page should be directed to the Community Justice Partnership to which it relates.
This information will be reviewed and updated where required.
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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