New and intrusive questioning star keyworkers are using

[mrs watson]

I Just want to ask if any one else who are on a methadone maintenance treatment and see key workers for there script have been introduced to the latest bit of paperwork that keys seem to be pulling out called the star. I think its a very intrusive load of rubbish with questions being asked and little plastic cards with numbered choice of answers and how high of a category you place yourself in from each question and category.
It questions how you see yourself and your recovery, mental health, relationships ect. My key didn't seem to be to keen on the fact that most of my answers scored me only 3 or 4 on a scale of 10 and tried to gently persuade me my answers could be higher and more capable in her view than what I was scoring myself with. I told her I was only being totally truthful about the way i am and what i can and cant achieve realistically so my responses and my question scores were to stay the way I knew are right for me at this time.
I am actually fed up with key and doc playing with my head at the mo and messing up my meds. I have been on methadone for 14 years now and was doing well and stable. They decided to drop my meth by five mill a day and when i found out i told them they would be doing the wrong thing and needed at this time to stay on the dose my system needs. I think they thought i wouldn't contest it so when i told my key i needed to see the doc to get a script for my original dose i was told i would be waiting a week to see the doc. no matter i told them i still wanted to,when i did see my doc after much toing and froing she said very reluctantly she would put me back on the higher dose. The key said she couldn't get my script redone until the next week due to computer procedure so i waited another full week before i got my script for original dose and then i was made to feel like i was a nuisance just cos i didn't agree to the drop shut up go home and let them get away with messing my meds and my head up. it is so annoying the way key and doc think they are god.
Has anyone else been having more issues than normal with services that prescribe there methadone ect. 

[simon]

This?
http://www.outcomesstar.org.uk/

[sapphire]

Just sounds the same as the TOPS crap they do (treatment Outcome Profile System).

Yoy know how you feel, and unless your keyworker is the first person in the universe to be able to tell ehat another person feels like, she doesn't, so shouldn't have you manipulate the figures.

She sounds shit, if you're not happy then change.

I've had the same crap about reducing from mine, and in the end I had to be really, really firm and say NO, this is not what I want.

It seems they think that people on long term scripts need 'encouragement' to start reducing, but some of them stop 'encouraging' and start enforcing.

Any reduction should be your decision, and 5 mil is quite a lot in one go, most people do a ml or two at a time, if they want to reduce that is!

[fixed]

If a key worker tried to influence my dissision on this or any other test I would deliberatly mark it lower next time.Looks like ive already gone threw 1 key at my new dsp in just 2 months, they never seem to last long before passing me on. wonder why???.
& as for it taking a week to get a script altered thats just bull. it takes just a few mins to print & sign it.

[OP8S]

I think we've all had it or going to have this kind of approach from our DSPs, their work carried out using key's some with some very sneaky, underhand techniques.

I went from an appointment where I had told my key ( just to get her from harping on about it constant ) that when last summer came I would consider a reduction of 5ml. This is after being on script that I was prescribed as a maintenance script, because I'd already tried many detoxes with or without a script.
One day in the summer same key turned up at my appointment with my prescribing GP & when the GP was writing my script the key said %^&* is reducing 5ml this month.
Luckily I've got a good prescribing GP, one that listens & wants what's best for his patient's.
I said I'd rather stick to my usual dose & the GP prescribed accordingly.

Needless to say I've never had a key present when I get my script again & have talked about it with my prescribing consultant in depth. As far as he say's if your DSP is adhereing to guidlines doseage decisions should be made between the patient & the prescribing consultant. If you've been reduced just on your keys say so & you haven't asked for a reduction then they're simply lying & hoping you'll accept their lies about maintenance prescribing soon to become " illeagal , so you might as well get off it now. "

This new form of TOPS is just a waste of tree's. Most people generally know what they want & how they feel. If somebodies goal is to achieve abstinence, then they will get their. If somebody feels they need OST then it should be available for them also. It also fuels the distrust between " them & us ", even more so.

[derek d j]

I love TOPs forms and dsp workers who believe questions like "how do you score your psychological health out of 20?" are an important part of treatment. Anyone who takes this nonsense seriously must be in a sorry state. It's the kind of dumbness that results when Drug Treatment serves as a job creation scheme and employees have to be kept occupied.

The big joke, of course, is that every keyworker in the country could be sacked in the morning and it would make not a whit of difference to any 'drug problem'. It is important users understand who needs whom. We are under an obligation to maintain our habits in order to keep these unfortunate people from deprivation. They have difficulty with reality and may pretend to be 'in charge'. We must do what we can.

[simon]

I love TOPs forms and dsp workers who believe questions like "how do you score your psychological health out of 20?" are an important part of treatment. Anyone who takes this nonsense seriously must be in a sorry state. It's the kind of dumbness that results when Drug Treatment serves as a job creation scheme and employees have to be kept occupied.

The big joke, of course, is that every keyworker in the country could be sacked in the morning and it would make not a whit of difference to any 'drug problem'. It is important users understand who needs whom. We are under an obligation to maintain our habits in order to keep these unfortunate people from deprivation. They have difficulty with reality and may pretend to be 'in charge'. We must do what we can.

I got a nasty telling off from someone about my criticism of TOP forms, they worked for the NTA, so I don't fill them in at all and haven't done for years.

[OP8S]

How very sensible & ecologically sound, all sounds quite refreshing !

[manus]

Dont fill them in they are an insult to your intelligence and can be used in very sneaky stealthy ways against you especialy if a key has an agenda he is keeping from you and knows that an improvement in scoring certain items(or a drop)can be used to back his proposed scheme and if you are vulnerable and suggestable can be "groomed",into answering how he wants you to.They are pathetic crude instruments(the star crap are  as well)I completed a psychology degree many years back now (while on mmt) and know how such instruments are put together,structured etc in some instances certain questionaire type tools are extremely useful but only if they are properly designed for specific purpose,these "star",toilet tissue papers are no better than a supermarket do you prefer pork orr beef etc  questionaire.It is extremely difficult using methodology that involves numerical measurement of subjective staes to come up to scratch and be relied on, and rightly so,the star is not one of these.I worked for some time in occupational therapy for adults with learning difficlulties and sometimes a chart called a "Star chart",was used not to be confused with the latest psuedo science comic book level psychology tool wielded by the newspeak people.

[froude]

WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT,USE IT FOR LIGHTING YOUR FIRE IN THE WINTER,Makes me fucking puke the amount of tosh they keep bringing in.Grooming you into saying what you want ,SHIT TALK like most of the Keyworker's out there (this is not for the one's that are good at their job),Anyway im off ,All the best Froude

[BKiddo]

loada sgite------even if you score a 4, nothing happens, just a 'well that's rather low'-----out of interest over a year I started at 20 for mental and physical and dropped to 2-----all that happened was the statement above----this was TOPS, what is the point of measuring something if you just say 'oh'-----so I just answer the first number that comes into my heed

[froude]

That the common phrase down here Bkiddo  "OH", sums up a lot when you have been pouring your heart out to some Keyworker's ,nothing to say except OH,great aint it  ,im sure you might here "Well done " at some point.When they say "REDUCE",ha ha ha (thats if your on treatment),All the best Froude

[sapphire]

I gave a 1 as my mental state of health, and nothing was commented on! I'm sure if I'd have gone off and topped myself thy'd have said, "Oh well, at least she's off that methadone now" 

[OP8S]

You're right Sapph, they'd bury your records in 60cube of concrete & nobody at your DSP would ever be able to say the "S" word again

I think they can be quite fun myself & often leave poor key as dazed as a baby racoon looking for it's mother. I really don't know why they bother on the whole though I'm sure the stats compare poorly with reality. As do many.