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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced grants totaling more than $32 million for substance abuse and alcohol treatment. The grants were awarded in October by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
SAMHSA distributed three-year grants totaling $23.7 million to 41 municipal, county, state, and tribal government substance abuse programs. They are designed to address treatment needs for substance abuse problems that are currently emerging in various regions.
SAMHSA will evaluate the effectiveness of grantees' efforts to expand treatment capacity and provide assistance for programs addressing substance abuse problems of specific cities, counties, states, or regions. Grantee programs will serve a wide range of patients, providing services for substance-abusing women and their children, people participating in welfare reform programs, juvenile and adult offenders referred by the criminal justice system, youth offenders with a dual diagnosis, physically and cognitively challenged individuals with a substance abuse problem, and hard-to-reach intravenous drug users.
"These grants recognize the fact that substance abuse problems begin in our local communities," said HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala. "Local substance abuse programs literally are on the front line in combating substance abuse outbreaks. These grants are designed to give these programs flexibility and enhance their ability to rapidly respond in meeting emerging intervention and treatment needs."
According to H. Westley Clark, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., the new director of SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), said, "This initiative responds to the desires of mayors, county officials, and community leaders to address new substance abuse trends at the earliest possible stages, and supports President Clinton's National Drug Control Strategy by cultivating a treatment system that is responsive to emerging trends."
Other grants awarded by CSAT provide $9 million to 19 states and a technical assistance center. These grants will support state efforts to develop more reliable systems for monitoring of substance abuse treatment outcomes and performance. In addition, CSAT will work with the states to develop a consensus on standardized measurements to assess more accurately the impact and effectiveness of alcohol and drug treatment. The grantees will study a representative sample of programs funded through federal block grants to determine measurements for patient outcomes. Each study will take up to three years, and CSAT will use the data to develop a national treatment outcomes database to measure the success of substance abuse treatment services.
"Our ability to provide federal resources to states and communities is increasingly based on what we can accomplish and document together," said SAMHSA Administrator Nelba Chavez, Ph.D. "Programs that can document their success are likely to survive-and success will be measured in demanding terms. Finding the right path to develop performance measures is a complex undertaking. This grant program is designed to help keep us on the right track. It will establish a sound basis for outcome-oriented, federal-state partnerships in reducing the health and social costs to the public of illegal drug use."