Island Health alcohol and other drug treatment services

Funding bodies: Island Health Research Support Competition

Background: The purpose of this research is to better understand the organization and delivery of health services for substance use issues in the geographic region served by Island Health. Qualitative descriptions of services delivered by 99 programs (housed in 64 agencies) in Island Health have been assembled. We plan to collect additional quantitative information on location/municipality, types of treatment (e.g., day treatment, continuing care, detox services), admission numbers by type of service and client characteristics, treatment models, length of stay, waiting lists, and suggestions for improvement of services. This information could be used for the development of more effective and efficient delivery of substance use services and to identify priorities for further research and evaluation.

Progress to date: Key providers of substance use services in the Island Health region have been identified and we have received ethical approval to proceed. A questionnaire has been sent out to the agencies and data collection is complete. We are in the process of analysing the data and plan to complete our report this year.