Researchers have questioned whether the addictions treatment infrastructure will be able to deliver high quality care to the large numbers of people in need. In this context, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) created a nationwide network to improve access and retention in treatment. Applicant agencies described results of an admissions process "walk-through." This qualitative study used narrative text from 327 applications to RWJF, focusing on admissions-related problems. We developed and applied a coding scheme, then extracted themes from code-derived text. Primary themes described problems reported during treatment admissions: poor staff engagement with clients, burdensome procedures and processes, difficulties addressing the clients' complex lives and needs, and infrastructure problems. Sub-themes elucidated specific process-related problems. Though findings from our analyses are descriptive and exploratory, they suggest the value of walk-through exercises for program assessment and programlevel factors that may affect treatment access and retention.
In the absence of entomological information, tools for predicting Anopheles spp. presence can help evaluate the entomological risk of malaria transmission. Here, we illustrate how species distribution models (SDM) could quantify potential dominant vector species presence in malaria elimination settings. We fitted a 250 m resolution ensemble SDM for Anopheles albimanus Wiedemann. The ensemble SDM included predictions based on seven different algorithms, 110 occurrence records and 70 model projections. SDM covariates included nine environmental variables that were selected based on their importance from an original set of 28 layers that included remotely and spatially interpolated locally measured variables for the land surface of Costa Rica. Goodness of fit for the ensemble SDM was very high, with a minimum AUC of 0.79. We used the resulting ensemble SDM to evaluate differences in habitat suitability (HS) between commercial plantations and surrounding landscapes, finding a higher HS in pineapple and oil palm plantations, suggestive of An. albimanus presence, than in surrounding landscapes. The ensemble SDM suggested a low HS for An. albimanus at the presumed epicenter of malaria transmission during 2018–2019 in Costa Rica, yet this vector was likely present at the two main towns also affected by the epidemic. Our results illustrate how ensemble SDMs in malaria elimination settings can provide information that could help to improve vector surveillance and control.
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