The New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (NYS OASAS) oversees one of the largest alcoholism and substance abuse (ASA) service systems in the world. Statewide planning for ASA treatment need in NYS can be extremely complex. Even when not considering New York City (NYC), the state encompasses a wide range of geographically and culturally diverse areas; from cities that are directly influenced by NYC urban phenomena to poor rural areas. Types, levels and consequences of substances used can vary dramatically among these areas. In order to address this complexity in a manner both valid and informative, NYS OASAS with funding from CSAT (Contract #270-96-0019) conducted a series of need assessment efforts. The culmination of these efforts resulted in estimates of the number of people in need of ASA treatment for each county in NYS (excluding NYC). Horizontal synthetic estimation was used to combine the results of a social area analysis of current, relevant community indicators with 1994 NYS-specific Adult Household survey data to estimate the number of people in each NYS county that may need ASA treatment services. Contrary to more traditional synthetic estimation techniques, an assumption when using horizontal synthetic estimation is that the environment affects ASA prevalence rates. The use of both community indicator and survey data together may also produce less biased estimates than either used alone. This presentation will go through each step of the process used to obtain these synthetic estimates of need.
Learning Objectives: Understand the method of Horizontal Estimation. Walk through an application of this method. Understand the usefulness of this method for planning
Keywords: Needs Assessment, Treatment
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: The New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (NYS OASAS)
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.