Assessing Adolescent Substance Abuse Programs With Updated Quality Indicators: The Development of a Consumer Guide for Adolescent Treatment

Abstract

When adolescent substance abuse requires treatment, few parents know which treatment features are important and which treatment programs are effective. There are few resources to help them select appropriate care. We describe early work on an evaluation method and comparative treatment guide for parents based upon the premise that the quality of a program and its potential effectiveness is a function of the number and frequency of evidence-based treatment practices (EBPs) delivered. Thus, we describe the development of and measurement approach for a set of EBPs toward the goal of developing a Consumer Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment.

Developing indicators of appropriate and inappropriate end-of-life care in people with Alzheimer’s disease, cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for population-level administrative databases: A RAND/UCLA appropriateness study

“…For AD, indicators of appropriate care (7) were less common than indicators of inappropriate care (21). For cancer, indicators of appropriate (12) and inappropriate (14) end-oflife care were evenly divided. For COPD, indicators of appropriate care (9) were again less common than those of inappropriate care (19).…”

“…Expert interviews resulted in 32 additional unique indicators. Indicators selected based on literature referred almost equally to appropriate (12) and inappropriate (14) care, while indicators from interviews rarely referred to appropriate care (6) and often referred to inappropriate care (26).…”

Current advances in the treatment of adolescent drug use

“…Community and family support, continuing care, and treatment monitoring of progress are important. Cacciola et al 64 have also identified ten features with 62 discrete practices that are associated with quality substance abuse care (eg, assessment, attention to mental health, comprehensive treatment, family involvement in treatment, developmentally informed programming, engaging and retaining adolescents in treatment, staff qualifications and training, culturally competent care, continuing care and recovery supports, program evaluation). These closely parallel National Institute of Drug Abuse principles.…”

Distilling the Core Elements of Family Therapy for Adolescent Substance Use: Conceptual and Empirical Solutions

“…Arguably the biggest advance to date has been the establishment of quality indicators designed to assess broad principles of care such as appropriate treatment assignment, retention and follow-up rates, referrals for medication and ancillary care, and client safety (see Pincus, Spaeth-Rublee, &Watkins, 2011). While useful for delineating basic contours of adequate service delivery (for the latest ASU example see Bekkering et al, 2014; Cacciola et al, 2015; NIDA, 2014), such broad principles of care do not inform the selection and delivery of specific treatment techniques to meet the unique needs of individual clients (Garland et al, 2010; Garland & Schoenwald, 2013). Likewise, the quality indicators used to asses such principles can only verify if a given procedure occurred or a service quota was met; they cannot specify how procedures should be implemented or measure whether services were delivered with acceptable fidelity.…”