The survey charted substance use related cases in social and health services on the second Tuesday of October in 2011. Professionals in social and health services recorded information on every client or patient who used the services on that day while intoxicated or because of some harm, such as an injury, relating to substance use, or were assessed by an employee to be a substance abuser.

First, the substances the client had used in the past 12 months (e.g. alcohol, cannabis, cocaine) as well as whether they had ever during their life injected drugs were charted. The primary reason for using social and health services (e.g. injury, withdrawal symptoms, substance abuse problems) and the services provided to the client (e.g. helping with life management problems, intervention, detoxication) were surveyed. The occurrence of threatening or violent behaviour by the client in the social welfare or health care facility was also examined, and mental health problems unrelated to substance use as well as gambling problems were charted.

Next, the questionnaire contained some questions directed only at either outpatient care clients (questions 19-22) or inpatient care clients (question 23). The questions concerning outpatient care clients focused on, for example, whether they had made an appointment beforehand and the time used on the services provided to them. The question concerning inpatient care (overnight care) clients examined the length of the client's continuous treatment at the time of data collection (e.g. 1-3 days, over a month, 6-12 months).

Background variables included the language of the questionnaire, region where the social welfare or health care facility was located (NUTS3) and type of the facility as well as the client's gender, region of residence (NUTS3), marital status, age group, economic activity and occupational status, housing tenure and whether they had children under 18 years of age.