Background: There is growing evidence that the number of substance abusers have increased. Use of public health surveillance
system in substance abuse at the community level is limited.

Objective: Study and develop a suitable Model for Substance Abusing Surveillance System (MSASS) in communities.

Material and Method: Thirty-eight volunteers, including five direct responsible officers, five local leaders, five people
representatives and four university specialists participated in the development of the model. The present study utilized ten sets
of database, reported on a monthly basis. These included substance abuse arrested cases, substance abuse treatment seekers,
anonymous notification of drug abuse, notification of obstacles and problems of the responsible organizations and notification
of substance abuse by the local community leaders. The seven approaches of the model included situational analysis,
prototype design, trial test, system design, system running test, model improvement and model dissemination. The study was
conducted in 47 communities in four sub-districts in Phakdichumphon District, Chaiyaphum Province.

Results: The MSASS model application was created at the community level. The model assessed and monitored substance
abuse practices of population aged 12 to 65 years and triggered prevention and control actions in communities. The five
important constituents of the model were 1) organizations of substance abuse networks, 2) indicators of substance abuse
situations, 3) criteria for investigation of magnitude of the problems, 4) data collection tools and 5) dissemination of
information. The model comprised of six core activities (detection, registration, confirmation, reporting, analysis and feedback)
and four support activities (communication through meeting and brainstorming, training, supervision and resource-provision).
After one year, the authors were able to develop indicators and criteria for measuring magnitude of the substance abuse
problems. The current developed MSASS was effective in terms of representativeness (93.0%), sensitivity (92.7%), timeliness
(84.7%), prediction ability (84.5%), acceptability (82.5%), simplicity (82.5%) and validity (80.3%).

Conclusion: The developed MSASS is an effective form of public health surveillance suitable for communities at a district
level.

Keywords: Model development, Surveillance system, Monitoring, Substance abuse