The Safe and Sober Support Service (SSSS) is a treatment service established in Alice Springs by Central Australian Aboriginal Congress. The objective of the service is to ‘Provide a holistic and culturally appropriate counselling, therapeutic treatment and support service that strengthens the cultural, social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal people and their families’. It aims to support Aboriginal clients who are experiencing harms associated with alcohol and other drug use, by providing assessment and multidisciplinary therapeutic intervention from multiple referral points in a co-ordinated, holistic way. It consists of four components: ambulatory casework and care coordination; the Prison In-Reach Program; AOD sector partnerships and development; and, the program evaluation.
SSSS was evaluated by NDRI staff. The evaluation used mixed methodology for the identification of a definitive set of performance indicators for outcomes and effectiveness of implementation. It found that SSSS had achieved its goals and made recommendations for improving its effectiveness.