Initiative of VAD, started as project in 1994 Telephone line for all kinds of questions on alcohol, illegal drugs, psychoactive medication and gambling Evolved to information service working via telephone, , website and publications

General Aims: Informing (answering questions on drugs, providing information through publications,...) Counseling (giving early advice) Refering (to possibilities for help and treatment and prevention) Monitoring: trends in and attitudes on alcohol and other drug use eg. involvment in Reitox Early Warning System

Telephone helpline Every working day from 10h00 to 20h00 After hours: Interactive Voice System Not totally free of charge (from 0.05/min to 0.025/min for fixed phone lines) Max. capacity: 4 calls at the same time Low number of prank calls (policy and not totally free of charge)

-counseling Since 2004; via contact form on several websites 1/3 inquiries at helpline is via Protocol and policy: –max. 3 s per inquiry –answered within 5 days –writer + reviewer of answers

Website Drugs ABC FAQ Basic advice for different target groups on how to deal with drug use Actually reconstructed with more options for micro-sites and campaigning

Main principles of work: Anonimity Objectivity Demand driven No profiling as emergency line Medical and legal restrictions

Staff – operators: Paid staff: 1 fulltime co-ordinator + 4 halftime operators Volunteers (3 hours of counseling per week) Basic theoretical training (30 hours), practice training (30 hours), individual monitoring, intervision and trainings (1 per month) All work at one central office (no remote work)

Use of social media: No Facebook- Twitter- or Netlog-account HVT (How much is too much, see further) Interactive tests on the website Try-out Skype Recent radiospot refers to our site where interaction is possible + is promoted via Facebook seeding Try out on facebook: Paid Advert on Rilatine use during exam period

Hoeveel is te veel? Roughly translated How much is too much? Online early intervention Offers drug users 6 online knowledge tests, 8 online self assessment test and 2 online self aid modules (for cannabis and cocaïne users)

Policy: DrugLijn is a part of a larger organisation VAD which has several members with different policys. VAD determines the policy DrugLijn can fall back on the support of VAD and its knowledge and connections

Practise: Specific communication techniques for telephone (lack of face-to-face contact) and (written contact) chanel reduction Large amount of theoretical knowledge (on drugs, on legislation, etc.) Both volunteers and staff answer the phone: payed work versus voluntary work

Technology: Staff has lack of knowledge on state-of- the-art communication technology Support from staff of VAD

Reporting: Difficult to report qualitative data eg. feelings and attitudes of parents Trends in society, eg. for further investigation Tailored and ad-hoc reporting (eg. domestic violence)

Support and supervision: Important to create a safe setting for our volunteers in order to give them the necessary support and supervision Large amount of information and specifity of questions increases over the years Staff has no external supervision, no coaching experience except by personal education.