General objective:
To improve the quality of plans, programmes, projects and preventive actions through the implementation of an intuitive and user-friendly information system to manage the quality of plans, programmes, projects and preventive actions and to put the programmes in a suitable position to be accredited in the DGPNSD Best Practice Portal, the EMCDDA Best Practice Portal or any other accreditation system.
Summary:
The main need in the field of quality of prevention programmes is the difficulty to accredit their effectiveness, i.e. to have evidence to claim that they apply preventive prevention. Evaluation is the only strategy for determining effectiveness. In Spain, few programmes have a robust evaluation system to prove that they have the preventive effects to reduce the needs that justify them. Impact evaluation is an unfulfilled need. This need, perceived and expressed by prevention professionals, obscures and often hides other needs of prevention programmes, such as carrying out a quality needs assessment; formulating the programme in line with resources and needs; setting objectives that are in line with needs, pragmatic, effective, evaluable and adapted to resources; designing a reliable system of indicators; designing activities in line with available evidence; operationalising objectives; calculating population coverage, among others. All these requirements have an impact on programme quality.
The needs in terms of evaluation, planning, design, resources, implementation and dissemination are different. The “European quality standards for the prevention of drug dependence” (EMCDDA, 2011) provide an excellent reference framework for standardising prevention activities with the aim of guaranteeing their quality and, consequently, achieving excellent rates of effectiveness. In Spain, the impact of European standards or other prevention-oriented quality systems is limited in practice. In general, the programmes have a large part of the quality standards, but in a fragmented way or without the internal consistency that gives the programme the strength to prove its effectiveness. Tékne is a digital quality control system, with particular emphasis on evaluation, to improve the quality of plans, programmes, projects and preventive actions, to manage the quality of preventive actions and to put programmes in an ideal position to be accredited in the DGPNSD Best Practice Portal, the EMCDDA Best Practice Portal or any other accreditation system. The need to improve quality and effectiveness is recognised by all professionals, but the question is how to improve. Tékne aims to respond to the need to improve the quality of programmes through a manageable, intuitive and adaptable programme information management system. If ‘episteme’ is the ‘why’, ‘tékne’ is the ‘how’.
Keywords:
Addictions; Drugs; Evaluation; Good practice; Quality standards; Prevention; Preventive interventions.
