How outpatient substance abuse treatment unit director activities may affect provision of community outreach services

Abstract

Aims Community outreach services play an important role in infectious disease prevention and engaging drug users not currently in treatment. However, fewer than half of US substance abuse treatment units provide these services and many have little financial incentive to do so. Unit directors generally have latitude about scope of services, including the level of outreach provided to the community. The current study examines how directors’ interactions with external stakeholders affect substance abuse treatment units’ provision of community outreach services. Methods Cross-sectional logistic and Poisson regression analyses were conducted on a national sample of US outpatient substance abuse treatment units (N = 547). Results Findings suggest that the amount of time directors spent with licensing and monitoring associations was associated with provision of a greater number of community outreach services, while time spent with professional and occupational associations was associated with provision of off-site human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C testing. Several other director attributes and organizational characteristics also emerged as significant. Conclusions External stakeholders with whom substance abuse treatment directors interact may influence community outreach through their effects on treatment directors’ strategic priorities. Implications for policy and prevention efforts are discussed.

Organizational supports used by private child and family serving agencies to facilitate evidence use: a mixed methods study protocol

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Hepatitis C testing in substance use disorder treatment: the role of program managers in adoption of testing services

“…We hypothesize that three key characteristics of managers are related to their organizations’ adoption of HCV testing: (1) the demographic characteristics of managers (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, age, educational level); (2) the sources of information they use for learning about advancements in the field of SUD treatment; and (3) their support for preventive services. In other healthcare contexts, race/ethnicity, [ 33 , 34 ] age, [ 35 ] gender [ 36 – 38 ] and educational levels [ 39 – 41 ] of managers have all been associated with organizational strategy, including the provision of prevention and outreach services. The managers’ sources of information have also been shown to influence the practices of an organization [ 26 , 40 , 42 , 43 ].…”

The Role of Program Directors in Treatment Practices: The Case of Methadone Dose Patterns in U.S. Outpatient Opioid Agonist Treatment Programs

“…Similarly, directors' age influences decision making, with younger directors being more responsive to new information (Kabacoff 2002). Directors' education, as a measure of knowledge and skills, has been correlated with organizational strategy, including the provision of prevention and outreach services (Wells, Lemak, andD'Aunno 2005, 2006;Chuang et al 2013). Finally, the managerial styles of female leaders have been shown to benefit organizational processes and performance (Burke and Collins 2001;Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt 2001).…”