Monitoring Trends: Use of Local Data

Understanding the complexity of patterns and trends in substance use is essential for effectively planning, selecting, and implementing local substance-use prevention interventions. This chapter summarises the background for developing methods to monitor substance-use patterns within well-defined populations. Such surveillance and monitoring systems help identify not only the types of psychoactive substances that are being consumed but also how they are used and the characteristics of those using them. This information can be used to gain support for and sustain prevention efforts over time and provide a baseline against which assessments can be made to determine their impact.