CoACH
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Collaborative Alcohol Care in Hull: A qualitative evaluation of the Hull Alcohol Assertive Outreach Treatment service
IRAS ID
332576
Contact name
Thomas Phillips
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Hull, PVC-Research and Enterprise
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 19 days
Research summary
People experiencing alcohol dependence use emergency care hospital services more often than those who do not. People who also experience physical and/or mental health problems use these services more than people who do not experience alcohol dependence.
There are specialist alcohol services which provide support, but around only 18% of people experiencing alcohol dependence engage with them. This means that a lot of people who need support are not getting it, which leads to increased attendance at emergency departments and increased costs to the NHS.
Evidence suggests that the best way to help people experiencing alcohol dependence alongside other health problems is to use intensive support to engage with them, before addressing their alcohol treatment needs. This is known as alcohol assertive outreach treatment (AAOT) and involves six key components; no more than 20 service users per practitioner; involvement of professionals from at least three different disciplines; at least weekly contact between service user and practitioners and at least half of these away from the specialist alcohol service; focus on health and social care needs such as accommodation and leisure; and provided for 12 months. This approach has been used in a similar way with people experiencing mental health problems, but there is limited evidence about how well it works for people experiencing alcohol dependence.
Hull City Council has recently started providing an AAOT service and in this study, we will talk to patients who use this service, staff who work with the service and are involved with the service to see how they feel about how the service is running and what might make it run better.REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
23/IEC08/0044
Date of REC Opinion
10 Jan 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion