The numbers don’t lie. SAMSHA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association) recently released results for their study of clients discharged from substance abuse treatment facilities. States are asked to submit data for all discharges from substance abuse treatment, and data comes from facilities that are licensed or certified by the State substance abuse agency to provide substance abuse treatment.
Here are the highlights of the recovery study:
- Sixty-eight percent of discharges were male.
- Fifty-six percent were non-Hispanic White.
- The largest age groups were 31 to 40 years (29 percent), 21 to 30 years (26 percent) and 41 to 50 years (25 percent). Fourteen percent were under age 21 and 9 percent were over age 50.
- Alcohol was the most common primary substance, reported by 39 percent.
- Forty-three percent of discharges reported daily use of their primary substance.
- The most common age group for initiating use of the primary substance was between 15 and 17 years.
- Forty-five percent of discharges had never been in treatment before.
- Thirty-five percent of discharges were referred to treatment by the criminal justice system; 34 percent were self- or individually referred.
- Alcohol was the primary substance reported at treatment admission for 38 percent of the discharges. Nineteen percent reported opiate, 15 percent reported marijuana, 14 percent reported cocaine, 10 percent reported stimulants, and 4 percent reported other substances.
- Treatment was completed by 41 percent of the discharges in the study. Thirteen percent were transferred to further treatment, 24 percent dropped out of treatment, 8 percent had treatment terminated by the facility, 2 percent had treatment terminated because of incarceration, less than 1 percent died, and 7 percent failed to complete treatment for other reasons.
- Of the 1,370,716 discharges who reported a reason for discharge, 43 percent were discharged from outpatient treatment.
- The treatment completion rate (44 percent for all discharges) was highest among clients discharged from hospital residential treatment (67 percent), detoxification (65 percent), and short-term residential treatment (56 percent). In longer-term and less structured settings, the treatment completion rate was lower — 39 percent from long-term residential treatment and 36 percent from intensive outpatient treatment and outpatient treatment. The completion rate was lowest (19 percent) among discharges from opioid replacement therapy.
Tags: Alcohol, Cocaine, Criminal Justice System, Detox, Detoxification, Marijuana, Opiates, Residential Treatment, SAMSHA, Stimulants, Substance Abuse, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association, Substance Abuse Treatment, Treatment, Treatment Facilities
