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Improving Care for the Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Disorders

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Abstract

The Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment (NIATx) teaches alcohol and drug treatment programs to apply process improvement strategies and make organizational changes that improve quality of care. Participating programs reduce days to admission, increase retention in care, and spread the application of process improvement within their treatment centers. More generally, NIATx provides a framework for addressing the Institute of Medicine’s six dimensions of quality care (i.e., safe, effective, patient-centered, efficient, timely, and equitable) in treatments for alcohol, drug, and mental health disorders. NIATx and its extensions illustrate how the behavioral health field can respond to the demand for higher quality treatment services.

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Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2006 Addiction Health Services Research Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment (NIATx) was supported through grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and cooperative agreements from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. The National Evaluation Team at Oregon Health and Science University was supported through awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (46876 and 50165), the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (through subcontracts from Northrop Grumman Corporation—PIC-STAR-SC-03-044, SAMHSA SC-05-110), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA018282). National Program Office activities at the University of Wisconsin were supported through awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (48364) and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (through a subcontract from Northrop Grumman Corporation—PIC-STAR-SC-04-035). The National Institute on Drug Abuse supports NIATx 200 (R01 DA 020832) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supports Advancing Recovery (56762, 56891, 56894–56898, 57786). The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation support STAR-SI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, CB669, 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR, 97239-3098, USA

    Dennis McCarty PhD

  2. NIATx National Program Office, University of Wisconsin, 610 Walnut Street, Room 1109, Madison, WI, 53726, USA

    David Gustafson PhD

  3. Open Society Institute–Baltimore, 201 North Charles Street #1300, Baltimore, MD, 21201, USA

    Victor A. Capoccia PhD

  4. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 1 Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD, 20857, USA

    Frances Cotter MA, MPH

Authors
  1. Dennis McCarty PhD
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  2. David Gustafson PhD
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  3. Victor A. Capoccia PhD
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  4. Frances Cotter MA, MPH
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dennis McCarty PhD.

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McCarty, D., Gustafson, D., Capoccia, V.A. et al. Improving Care for the Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Disorders. J Behav Health Serv Res 36, 52–60 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-008-9108-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-008-9108-4

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