F. Trautmann, D. Burrows
Mar 1, 2000
Citations
0
Influential Citations
6
Citations
Journal
International Journal of Drug Policy
Abstract
In recent years, alternatives have been sought for traditional scientific research, which has proven to be expensive and time consuming in assessing and responding to public health problems. This is especially the case in the field of illicit drug use and HIV prevention, where attempts have been made to develop new models of assessment and response. Financial resources necessary for traditional research are often hard to find. Many public health problems require a quicker response than traditional scientific research generally allows. Drug trends can develop very quickly. The same goes for local or regional outbreaks of HIV epidemics among drug users. Case examples from developing and transitional countries underline the need for faster, less expensive research and immediate action. This has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop methods for rapid assessment and response (WHO, 1998; WHO/UNAIDS, 1998). The core of this approach is the set of Rapid Assessment and Response (RAR) Guides developed by WHO and UNAIDS in conjunction with the Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour at the University of London (Rhodes et al., 1999a; Stimson et al., 1999). In the last 2 years, the approach has been tested extensively in developing and transitional countries in different regions around the world. This testing has been done by implementation strategies including training courses and consultancy to support the implementation of assessments and subsequent intervention developments using a draft version of the RAR Guide. The most extensive program using RAR as a core element has been carried out in the Russian Federation (RF) where Medecins sans Frontieres-Holland (MSF-H) realised a nation-wide training program in HIV prevention among injecting drug users (Burrows et al., 1998, 1999). The training is based on a sandwich formula, with the rapid assessment being implemented between two * Corresponding author. Fax: +31-30-297-1111.