Coaching agencies to improve substance abuse treatment

This session will focus on discussion of lessons learned from a qualitative evaluation of the use of coaches to promote process improvement changes designed to increase access and retention of clients in substance abuse treatment agencies. The NIATx (Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment) collaborative of over 40 substance abuse treatment agencies, funded in separate projects by the RWJ Foundation and CSAT, used coaches to work with agency sponsors, change leaders, and their teams to initiate creative solutions to address these goals over an 18 month or 3 year period, respectively. The results describe the process that coaches followed and describe factors that enhanced or inhibited their success. Our findings suggest that coaches are useful change agents in stimulating processes that will increase patient access and retention and that the coaches that are most successful in meeting those aims include the following characteristics: frequent and regular contact, understanding of the characteristics of substance abuse, willingness to learn, understanding of data monitoring systems, the ability to teach how to use data monitoring systems, and an interest in the agency's success.