Instruments of Policy and Administration for Improving Substance Abuse Treatment Practice and Program Outcomes

Abstract

The call for practice improvement in substance abuse treatment is motivated by the ultimate goal of achieving consistently positive post-treatment outcomes. A central hypothesis of the empirical investigation in this study is that consumer-level outcomes are affected either directly or indirectly through clinical practice, by factors originating at the policy and organizational level. Four broad categories of policy and program administration (funding, service technology and delivery, organizational structure, and leadership) that facilitate or hinder the implementation of practice improvements are investigated. Models hypothesizing that the effects of policy and program administration will vary according to the treatment goals and corresponding measurement of outcomes are tested. Using newly available data that link program- and consumer-level measures, the empirical analysis shows statistically significant direct effects of program and policy factors on outcomes as well as effects of these variables on treatment practices that have significant implications for treatment outcomes.