Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

Abstract #160846

Thomas Babor, PhD, Dept of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut, 263 Farmington Avenue, Unit UCHC-6325, Farmington, CT 06032, 860-679-5459, babor@nso.uchc.edu, Laura A. Schmidt, PhD, Institute for Health Policy Studies and Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Suite 265, San Francisco, CA 94118, Kerstin Stenius, PhD, Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs, Stockholm University, Sveavägen 160, Stockholm, Sweden, and Dennis McCarty, PhD, Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR 97239-3098.

Whereas clinical research on the treatment of persons with substance use disorders has grown significantly, there has been little study devoted to the organization and delivery of services at the level of treatment service systems.. Because treatment policy is most often directed at the allocation of resources at the systems level, there is a pressing need for public health systems research on alcohol and drug treatment. The rationale for this session is therefore to highlight new concepts and emerging research on treatment system factors likely to influence population health. The papers illustrate recent advances in the understanding of such systems factors as access to care, retention in treatment, continuity of care, and service integration that have important implications for both treatment policy and public health. The titles of each 15 minute paper are listed as follows in order of presentation: 1) Alcohol and Drug Treatment Systems in Public Health Perspective: Mediators and Moderators of Population Effects; 2) Trends in access to addiction treatment, 1984-2004; 3) Decentralisation and integration of addiction treatment - does it make any difference?; 4) Improving processes in state treatment systems. The moderator of the session will be Thomas F. Babor.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe what is meant by a public health systems approach to addiction services 2. Understand the way treatment policy affects the population impact of alcohol and drug treatment services
• Appreciate the potential contributions of access, efficiency, economy, and continuity of care to treatment effectiveness.

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.