From Standards to Action: Ensuring Quality in Drug Treatment Services

Quality Standards ensure that treatment for substance use disorders leads to measurable improvements, reducing symptoms, enhancing physical, mental, and social functioning, and minimising health and social harms. Standards are useful in guiding the design and enhancement of treatment systems based on the best available scientific evidence. They promote coordinated, integrated services that are accessible, affordable, diverse, and delivered across multiple settings, tailored to the severity and complexity of each person’s needs. A strong treatment system operates within a universal health coverage framework, emphasising effective, least-invasive interventions that are cost-efficient for both patients and health systems. Key to this approach is a stepwise, biopsychosocial model offering continuity of care across all service levels. Quality Assurance aims to build a culture of ongoing improvement, with regular monitoring and re-evaluation through a Continuous Improvement Cycle, ensuring sustainable, ethical, and impactful care.

To develop a Quality Assurance toolkit, UNODC and WHO led global expert consultations (2016–2020) to review existing standards and tools. This resulted in three QA tools: one for service-level quality, another for national treatment systems, and a third for medication-assisted treatment. These tools continue to be refined through peer review, country-level adaptation, piloting, and evaluation in training workshops worldwide.

This webinar will outline the development process and present an overview of the current standards.

Intended audience:

This webinar is intended for:

Policy-Makers and Health Service Planners: Government officials and public health authorities involved in designing and overseeing national health and substance use policies.
Treatment System Managers: Administrators and coordinators of substance use disorder treatment services at regional or national levels who are responsible for implementation and quality oversight.
Healthcare Providers and Clinicians: Medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and addiction specialists engaged in direct service delivery.
NGOs and Civil Society Organisations: Representatives involved in advocacy, service delivery, and community engagement in substance use treatment and recovery support.
Quality Assurance and Accreditation Bodies: Institutions tasked with health service accreditation, standard setting, and continuous quality improvement.
Trainers and Capacity Building Entities: Organisations or individuals delivering training and technical support in substance use disorder treatment and health systems strengthening.

Learning outcomes:

By attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Understand the Core Principles of Quality Assurance in Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Participants will gain an understanding of what constitutes quality in treatment services, including evidence-based practices, continuity of care, and public health-oriented approaches.
Familiarise with the UNODC-WHO Quality Assurance Toolkit: Attendees will be introduced to the QA tools developed by UNODC and WHO, covering service-level quality, treatment systems, and medication-assisted treatment, and learn how these can be adapted and implemented in various contexts.
Apply Quality Assurance Approaches for Sustainable Improvement: Participants will be exposed to the utility of the Continuous Improvement Cycle to embed sustainable quality assurance practices in treatment services, including monitoring, evaluation, and iterative service enhancement.

Presenters:

Sanita Suhartono

Sanita Suhartono is an Associate Drug Control and Crime Prevention Officer at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section. She supports the coordination and implementation of UNODC’s global programmes focused on the treatment and care of drug use disorders. With a background in international development and public health, she has contributed to the development of key technical tools and initiatives, focusing on increasing quality assurance mechanisms for the treatment of drug use disorders, including strengthened health and justice collaboration to promote drug treatment as an alternative to conviction or punishment. Since joining UNODC in 2016, she has held positions at headquarters in Vienna and the Regional Office for Eastern Africa, advancing effective approaches and interventions for people who use drugs and with drug use disorders, in line with the International Standards for the Treatment of Drug Use Disorders.

Moderators:

Goodman Sibeko

ISSUP Scientific Advisor.

Webinars and online events delivered and hosted by the International Society of Substance Use Professionals (ISSUP) are provided for informational purposes only. They are educational in nature and do not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.