Current Evidence, Reference and Guidance on Addictions Group

(CERGA)

NHS Grampian

Terms of Reference, Agreed December 2012

1.Remit

The remit of the group is to:

a)provide evidence-based advice and assessment of its strength to the three Grampian Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs), namely Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray and their partner agencies or any other interested local parties in relation to strategy, service provision and decision-making in clinical and non-clinical aspects of the risk of harm or addiction (harm reduction) to alcohol and other drugs,or its management (treatment);

b)support dissemination of this advice to stakeholders;

c)support the development of quality assurance frameworks, standard setting, monitoring, clinical audit and reporting and local guideline adaptation through the provision of this advice for relevant clinical practice guidance, training and personal professional development

The mechanisms enabling this will be:

  • provision of easily accessible references to recent papers in fields related to addictions on a quarterly basis;
  • rapid reviews of literature and national guidelines on specified topics relevant to clinical and non-clinical aspects of the management of addictions to alcohol and other drugs. Sources for the rapid reviews will primarily be published literature on the efficacy, effectiveness (and where available cost-effectiveness) of established and emerging interventions of local service relevance; grey literature sources will also be considered;
  • a statement of recommendation from the Group on each topic covered, based on the rapid reviews and consequent discussion by members of the Group will be provided online for stakeholders;
  • review of the Group's terms of reference at least every 2 years.
  1. Membership
  • Consultant Psychiatrists in Substance Misuse
  • Consultant in Public Health Medicine with a remit on Substance Misuse
  • Consultant Nurse in Substance Misuse
  • Public Health Officer for Substance Misuse
  • NHS Grampian Substance Misuse Service Manager
  • Specialist Pharmacist in Substance Misuse
  • Consultant Gastroenterologist (Liver Diseases)
  • GP with Special Interest in Substance Misuse
  • Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP x3) Team Leads
  • Service Commissioner from LA perspective
  • Contracted topic support member
  • Public Health Leads

Other members may be co-opted into the group for specific pieces of work, e.g. consultants in Paediatrics, Obstetrics, A&E, Infectious Diseases, as well as other medical, nursing, pharmacy and non-clinical service representatives.

  1. Accountability

The Group reports into the NHS Grampian Substance Misuse Group (NHSGSMGp).

Chairmanship will rotate between members of the group (primarily Substance Misuse Psychiatry and Public Health) on a two yearly basis.

  1. Activity and outputs

The Group will meet 4 times a year, most usually at RoyalCornhillHospital.

Administrative support will be provided by the NHS Grampian Substance Misuse Service.

Topics for review will be sought widely from stakeholders including professionals and lay individuals supporting the field of Substance Misuse. Requests will be made using the CERGA Topic Suggestion Form available on the Hi-Net website Agencies will be reminded periodically of this resource through distribution lists and appropriate meetings.

The Group will consider topic suggestions at each meeting and further clarification will be sought from the requester, if needed. Where proposed topics are deemed to fall outwith the remit of CERGA, a member will be delegated to discuss with the proposer the reasons for this and any suggestions for further sources of assistance.

A workplan will be established providing an outline of requested topics to be covered that will have been reviewed and ranked by the Group at each meeting. The workplan will include timescales.

Periodically, the NHSGSMGp will be consulted on prioritisation of topics in the workplan.

There will be a facility in support of the work of CERGA, funding for this will be from interested sources. Such commissioned support will be agreed through a service level agreement (SLA). The key elements of this SLA will be to provide:

  • a programme of critically appraised evidence summaries to inform the discussion of specifically agreed topics (rapid reviews);
  • a list of abstracts from key peer reviewed journals on alcohol and other drug addictions;
  • participation in CERGA meetings.

Each rapid review will be discussed at a CERGA meeting where members will have the opportunity to comment and debate the content including methodology, findings, conclusions and possible recommendations. The requester of the topic of work will be invited to participate in this meeting.

Once discussion has been agreed, the paper will be signed off by the group and posted on the HI-Net website available to the general public accompanied by a position statement from CERGA on the conclusions drawn.

A dissemination list will be kept with open membership to anyone interested in the field of substance misuse. An email alert will be sent to the dissemination list whenever a new paper is added. A log of website hits will be kept and monitored.

Next Review date December 2014