Enhancement to the activity details tab on LINK

The National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS) has launched a significant enhancement to the LINK system.  You will now be able to record additional supports for your clients not previously available on the NDTRS e.g. housing support, domestic violence support.

The Activity details tab is now upgraded with the following changes:

  1. Q32a Treatment interventions: this will function exactly the same as before, with treatment interventions included coming under the NDTRS EU reporting remit.
  2. Q32a.  Support/Other interventions: this includes care plan, key working and case manager as before, but also allows the opportunity to record other supports e.g. housing support, domestic violence support.
  3. Change to the way teleworking is recorded: can now be linked to individual activities to improve data quality.

Change to the activity details tab

The NDTRS will now record two types of interventions, treatments and supports/other interventions. These have been split into separate sections.

Splitting the Activities details tab into two sections will not only make it easier for the NDTRS to manage the correct reporting of episodes, but will also allow for more flexibility for services to accurately represent all the support activities they provide, while still allowing the NDTRS to meet overall reporting obligations.

  • Episodes with interventions recorded in the ‘Treatment interventions’ section will be used in all reports to the EUDA, the Department of Health and our annual bulletins.
  • Episodes with ‘Support/Other interventions’ only, can be used for your own annual reports, local and service planning reports.
  • Episodes with interventions recorded in the ‘Treatment interventions’ section and ‘Support/Other interventions’ will be used in all reports to the EUDA, the Department of Health and our annual bulletins.

The ‘Support/Other Interventions’ section will include the existing options of care plan, key working, case management and the newer Drive interventions option. It will also now include the opportunity to add supports provided by services which traditionally were not a part of the NDTRS remit, for example:

  • Housing support
  • Education support
  • Domestic violence support
  • Bereavement support

Change to recording of teleworking:

Teleworking can now be linked to each individual intervention to allow a better understanding of the use of teleworking in addiction treatment and support.

When adding an intervention, the following options will be available for teleworking:

  • No
  • Yes, some sessions
  • Yes, all sessions

Next steps

At this time, the intervention options for your service have not changed, and you can continue to record episodes and treatment interventions as before in this Tab.  Care plan, key working, case management and drive interventions are currently the only options available under the ‘Support/Other Interventions ‘section.

There will be a phased rollout to add in the relevant new supports for your service and also assess the inclusion of other possible new interventions or supports.  The NDTRS Team will contact each service to discuss this in the near future. In the meantime, if you have any queries, please feel free to contact ndtrs@hrb.ie and we will be happy to help.