Substance Abuse Treatment Outcome Measures

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Substance Abuse Treatment Outcome Measures
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National Outcome Measures

• SAMHSA requires states to report on the National
  Outcome Measures (NOMS) and submit the findings
  when the Block Grant Application is submitted.
• SAMHSA is in a developmental stage with regard to
  NOMS. To date, information on outcomes is only
  discussed internally and methodological issues
  remain to be reviewed.

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Methodology

• The source of this information is the data
  reported by funded substance abuse providers at
  admission and discharge (BHIPS).
• The results are reported at the episode level
  (first admission and last discharge from the same
  or multiple levels of service).
• The analyses includes Intensive, Supportive and
  Outpatient Treatment. We also include NorthStar
  data.

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Methodology

• DSHSs Decision Support Unit prepared a SAS
  program to calculate the NOMS.
• Features
• Selects clients that meet some date
  specifications
• Merges NorthStar with Core client subsets
• Defines operational variables
• Identifies clients with a single admission and
  discharge event.

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Methodology

• Features (continued)
• Identifies clients with multiple admission and
  discharge episodes at different levels
• Reclassifies first admission and last discharge
• Calculates percents at admission and discharge on
  the Client Measures.

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Methodology

• Strength of NOMS
• Provides SAMHSA a measure of effectiveness of its
  funded substance abuse treatment system.
• The variables selected have been identified as
  factors affected by substance abuse and
  dependency, and
• Research shows that these are factors that may be
  influenced by effective substance abuse
  treatment.
• Challenges
• Due to variations of methodology between states,
  a state to state comparison is not feasible at
  this time.
• Some states are not yet ready to report NOMS.
• Because the comparison is between admission and
  discharge, missing data on variables biases the
  results.

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Client Measures

• The following slide presents a chart of the 2007
  results for these variables
• Employed percent in the labor force who are
  employed at admission and discharge.
• Alcohol Abstinent percent of clients who report
  abstinence from alcohol at admission and
  discharge.
• Other Drug Abstinent percent of clients who
  report abstinence from substance other than
  alcohol.

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Client Measures (continued)

• Social Support Activities percent of clients who
  participate in peer support meeting or
  activities.
• Housed Percent of clients who had a positive
  living situation (i.e., not homeless).
• Not Arrested Percent of clients who were not
  arrested during the past 30 days prior to
  admission and during treatment.

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