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Abstract #147554

Lawrence S. Brown, MD, MPH, FASAM, Division of Medical Services, Evaluation and Research, Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation, 22 Chapel Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, 718 260-2917, lbrown@artcny.org, Steven Kritz, MD, Division of Medical Services, Research and Information Technology, Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation, 22 Chapel Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, Edmund J. Bini, MD, MPH, Division of Gastroenterology, VA NY Harbor Healthcare System and NYU School of Medicine, 423 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010, Jim Robinson, MEd, Nathan Kline Institute, 140 Old Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, NY 10962, Don Alderson, MS, NYS Psychiatric Institute, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, and John Rotrosen, MD, Department of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine and VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, 423 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010.

Background: The availability of infection-related health services in treatment programs serving women and non-white populations has not been investigated despite the proven infection-related benefits of substance abuse treatment. We investigated the differences in availability of infection-related services between programs with and without addiction services tailored for women and non-white populations. Methods: In a cross-sectional, descriptive design, administrators from 269 treatment programs within the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network provided program characteristics, availability of 21 infection-related services, and presence or absence of 8 barriers to providing these services. Results: Compared to treatment programs without addiction services tailored for any special population, treatment programs providing addiction services designed for at least one special population were more likely to provide HIV-related education (94% versus 85%, p = 0.05) and patient counseling (76% versus 60%, p = 0.03), and were more likely to include outpatient addiction services (86% versus 57%, p<0.001) and outreach and support services (92% versus 70%, p=0.01) despite funding, health insurance, and patient acceptance barriers. Conclusions: Tailoring addiction treatment and reducing barriers to infection-related health care provide opportunities to reduce the burdens and disparities associated with these infections.

Learning Objectives:

• To look at associations between substance abuse treatment programs offering specialized addiction services for women and racial/ethnic minorities, and presence of services for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and sexually transmitted diseases

Keywords: Substance Abuse Treatment, Minorities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.