A COMPARISON OF 3 METHODS OF MEASURING THE TYPE AND QUANTITY OF SERVICES PROVIDED DURING SUBSTANCE-ABUSE TREATMENT

This study examined three data collection methods of quantifying and c ategorizing treatment services provided in a publicly funded methadone program. All three approaches were research technician implemented: ( 1) bi-weekly patient interview with the Treatment Services Review (TSR ); (2) weekly counselor interview by the Counselor Services Interview (CSI); and (3) data abstraction from clinical patient records (REC). F ifty patients were followed over 28 days using each method to assess t he services : received/provided within the program. Five service domai ns were assessed: medical, employment, alcohol/drug, family, and psych iatric. Correlations were calculated among the three methods of data c ollection across each of the Eve service domains. Overall, low to mode rate correlations were found with the highest rates of agreement detec ted between the TSR and the REC in the employment domain (0.48) and th e REC and CSI in the family domain (0.48). Post hoc focus groups with the counselors and patients found that: (I) counseling sessions rarely focused on specific problem domains; (2) counselors and patients disa greed about the quality of treatment services; and (3) counselors 'rou nded-up' time spent counseling. These findings suggest that measuring treatment service delivery varies markedly based on who provides the i nformation (e.g. patient or treatment staff) and what procedures are u sed for data collection (e.g. chart abstraction or self-report). (C) 1 997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.