A pilot survey of client opinion of the Lothian Community Drug Problem Service: likes, dislikes, efficacy and improvements.

An open ended unstructured questionnaire was used to find out the opinion of clients of the Community Drug Problem Service of Lothian Health Board, concerning how the service had helped them and for suggestions for improvement. A total of 63 questionnaires were returned over a six month period. Analysis showed that 77% of respondents valued counselling services but 26% complained of too low oral substitute drug dosage. Improvement in personal development, stabilised drug use, less criminality and stopping injecting were reported as being the main benefits. A more detailed self reporting questionnaire will be developed from this pilot study to answer some of the questions raised and for use as a routine part of ongoing service monitoring and evaluation.