Chapter 16
Central Registry of Drug Addicts
To those who are responsible for formulating the Government's anti-narcotics policies, reliable information and statistics on the trends and characteristics of drug addiction in Hong Kong as well as the effectiveness of various treatment and prevention programmes are of great importance. It was for this reason that the Government set up the Central Registry of Drug Addicts four years ago. During the year under review, a major re-organization of this registry was carried out with the aim of streamlining its operation and increasing its efficiency. 2 When the registry was set up in April 1972, the original aims were:
(a) to estimate the total number of drug addicts in Hong Kong;
(b) to obtain information on the average success rate of institutionalized
treatment; and
(c) to compare the success rate of organized treatment with those of other
forms.
After two years operation, however, it was realized that these objectives were quite impossible to achieve by the then registry, due to various inherent weaknesses which severely hampered its efficiency. It was therefore decided to seek expert advice.
A new system for the registry
3 With the assistance of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the United States, the Government obtained the consultancy services of Mr. Bent Werbell, Project Manager (Data Processing Department) of the New York City Department of Health in April 1976. At the end of his three and a half months study, Mr. Werbell recommended that a new and almost entirely different system should be used for the registry, involving changes in aims, organization and operation. His report was submitted to ACAN in August and was accepted in full. Implementation of the new system is divided into two phases. Phase one, which is currently being undertaken, concerns three aspects.
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First, the objectives of the registry are revised as follows:
(a) to identify trends in the nature of addiction and the addiction population
in Hong Kong over time;
(b) to describe certain characteristics of the reported addict population and to contrast these characteristics among addicts reported from specific sources; and
(c) to provide information regarding the association of contact with certain reporting sources (e.g. enforcement agencies and treatment agencies) with subsequent, as well as preceding history of addicts.
Second, the Commissioner for Narcotics will continue to be responsible for the operation of the registry. Also, two posts of professional statisticians are being created within the registry to strengthen its statistics processing capacity. Third, in place of the cumbersome reporting form previously in use, a simple, one-page record sheet was designed and distributed to all agencies concerned for use from 1st September 1976 onwards. The sheet, in both English and
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Chinese, will collect identifying, social, demographic, and drug abuse informa- tion from each individual addict (or suspected addict) whenever an agency comes into contact with him or her. (A revised record sheet is at Appendix 8). sheets, which are collected on a monthly basis, are screened by the staff the registry before passing to the Data Processing Division of the Government Secretariat for processing and analyses.
To ensure that the findings of the registry will be truly representative, attempts have been made to include as many reporting sources as possible, particularly those that previously have reported very seldom or not reported at all. At present, there are 23 reporting sources, comprising four government departments, 8 voluntary agencies and 11 private hospitals. Up to end of the year, 11,455 reports had been received.
6 Phase two of the re-organization, involving the design and application of a computerized data processing system, is scheduled to begin in August 1977. Around that period, it is expected that Mr. Werbell will return to Hong Kong to work out the new system with the staff of the Data Processing Division.
The computer system to be used for the registry has never been used before in Hong Kong. It is known as Integrated Data Base Management System and is expected to take about six months to develop. Its main capabilities are:
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(a) to identify whether or not an individual has previously been reported, so as to avoid duplications and to enable the production of various trend analyses;
(b) to detect errors and inconsistency in the reports received; and (c) to produce a wide range of analyses in a short period of time.
8 The re-organization of the CRDA is expected to be completed towards the end of 1977. Once the system is fully operational, statistical reports will be produced regularly. It is hoped that the information provided will establish a reliable and valid picture of the drug abuse scene in Hong Kong, thus assisting the Government and voluntary agencies in planning treatment and prevention programmes.
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