Treatment
Westat conducts studies to describe, monitor, and gauge the effectiveness of substance abuse
treatment programs. These efforts differ on the populations served, types of substance abuse targeted, and
treatment modalities.
- CSAT's Services Accountability Improvement System (SAIS) provides the full range of support for
CSAT activities under GPRA for all CSAT discretionary programs, covering some 600 grantees. To enhance its GPRA
efforts, CSAT is developing a system that will allow project officers, center management, and grantees to use
data for program and portfolio management and policy decisions. SAIS is serving as a data repository for
short-turnaround and more detailed analyses to meet these needs. Westat is providing training and technical
assistance to grantees on gathering and reporting data, conducting analyses, and working with the grantees and
CSAT staff on using the data to improve programs.
- We conducted the Persistent Effects of Treatment Studies (PETS), a complex data
collection and analysis project. PETS, sponsored by CSAT, supported a family of studies examining the
long-term effects (from 2 1/2 to 5 years post-treatment entry) of drug and alcohol treatment. This
study included a wide range of publicly funded programs employing a varied mix of treatment methods,
as well as some 2,500 adults and 1,500 adolescents.
- NIDA is funding an Evaluation of Specialized versus Nonspecialized Chemical Dependency
Treatment for Women with Children in Washington State to compare the following:
- Long-term residential treatment programs targeted to the needs of pregnant and parenting women, and
- Traditional mixed-gender programs.
Drawing on administrative data and interviews with program staff, we are comparing the two types of programs on
client outcomes, best practices, and cost-effectiveness.
- For NCI, Westat performed 6 years of point-prevalence and longitudinal surveys to assess the effectiveness of
the Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation (COMMIT) in 11 pairs of trial communities.
Our Telephone Research Center staff conducted more than 140,000 household screening interviews and 165,000 full
interviews with smokers and nonsmokers. Subsequently, COMMIT respondents participated in a followup survey
10 years after the baseline survey.
- The Helping Young Smokers Quit Evaluation, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and NCI,
is assessing the effectiveness of smoking cessation programs for adolescents and young adults. Westat and the
University of Illinois at Chicago are performing the following:
- Selecting and recruiting diverse programs, and
- Collecting and analyzing multiple rounds of information on the programs and the youth they serve.
For more information about the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Studies Research Area,
please send us a message.
