A study of patient pathways in alcohol and other drug treatment

摘要: BackgroundThere is now a substantial evidence base indicating that once in addiction treatment, many individuals with alcohol and drug dependence improve. However, questions remain around what combination of service use is associated with these improvements and how systems can be configured to optimise and maintain positive treatment outcomes. The literature on treatment effectiveness to date is limited in that outcome studies typically describe the response to an isolated episode of care within a particular treatment modality (eg, inpatient detoxification), which represents only a fraction of the overall treatment episode. In addition, while Australian outcome studies typically involve participants using major illicit drugs (heroin, amphetamines), there has been no cohort study of alcohol and cannabis users in Australia, despite these being the most commonly abused substances and the two most frequent primary drugs of concern among the 659 publicly funded alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services across Australia (AIHW, 2013), accounting for 70% of treatment episodes in 2009-10 (48% alcohol and 23% cannabis)(AIHW, 2011). Whilst there is increasing recognition that specialist AOD services are merely one component of a larger interconnected system which includes health and welfare services, the extent of inter-and intra-sectorial linkage and the resulting pathways of care for clients accessing AOD specialist services remain poorly understood. Nevertheless, Babor et al.(2008; 2010) suggest that the cumulative impact of engaging with AOD services and non-specialist AOD services in the community should translate into …