Optimisation of alcohol treatment services
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Expanding and optimising alcohol treatment services within SWB and beyond through patient and healthcare professional involvement
IRAS ID
357586
Contact name
Darren Quelch
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sandwell and West-Birmingham NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 2 days
Research summary
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS have two novel arms to their alcohol treatment services 1) An elective detoxification service, 2) Alcohol prescribing for alcohol withdrawal management. We aim to expand these services and improve delivery across SWB and beyond.
Elective detoxification
We have previously demonstrated that the SWB elective detoxification service is effective and runs within national outpatient performance recommendations. We would like to expand this service through the provision of out of area referrals. However to do this, we need to understand more about healthcare professionals and patients perspectives surrounding the current service and the feasibility/acceptability of expanding it. This will be achieved through
1. The conduct of interviews with healthcare professionals working outside of SWB
2. The conduct of interviews with patients who have been through the elective detoxification pathway.
Alcohol prescribing
We would like to work towards gathering more evidence surrounding the effect of alcohol prescribing on patients and healthcare providers. As part of this, we are reviewing the thoughts and opinions of patients and healthcare professionals surrounding alcohol prescribing because this could be a treatment that is met with some hesitancy.
We aim to:
1. Expand our healthcare professionals’ study to a broader audience by
a. Designing and disseminating a national alcohol prescribing survey where the perspectives of healthcare professionals outside of SWB surrounding alcohol prescribing will be reviewed and barriers and hesitancies will be explored
b. Conducting interviews with healthcare professionals outside of SWB reviewing in more detail their perspectives of alcohol prescribing
2. Learn more about the impact of alcohol prescribing on patients by
a. Disseminating a public survey exploring individuals with lived experience of alcohol dependence perspectives on alcohol prescribing for alcohol withdrawal management
b. Performing interviews with patients at SWB who have previously had their alcohol withdrawal symptoms managed using alcohol prescribingREC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/SW/0082
Date of REC Opinion
29 Aug 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion