Relation Between Drug Treatment Services, Retention, and Outcomes

Q1. 

Hser, Y. I., Evans, E., Huang, D., Anglin, D. M. (2004). The relationship between drug treatment services, retention, and outcomes. Psychiatric Services, 55 (7), 767-774. 

Q2. 

The treatment process in the drug treatment programs is the dependable variable of the study while the possible outcomes of the community-based program are the independent variables in the study. 

Q3. 

The California Treatment Outcome Project used their past and present patients as subjects. Nonprobability sampling was used to determine the subjects of the study. This was based on the subjects with the required data. The selection strategy used by the researchers predisposed the findings. This is because the patients with complete data were more likely to be committed to the retention of the treatment services. Consequently, the study could not include too many details because this could show the reader the slight pattern of compliance. This was why the findings were generalized. 

Q4. 

The title of this publication partially represents the content it claims. The publication describes some of the drug treatment services that are offered. It additionally does not give detailed explanations of the drug treatment programs that are most effective or those that have the lowest outcomes. The publication title was slightly misleading because the content does not demonstrate the relationship between the different variables. If I were an editor of this journal, I would suggest a more neutral topic such as exploring the factors that enhance retention and positive outcomes in drug treatment services. This would pre-empt the reader on what to expect from the publication. The current title raises the reader's expectations but does not deliver. 

Q5. 

The participants who were ascertained to have mental health challenges were mostly able to receive services that addressed the majority of their drug-related issues. They included interventions addressing both alcohol and drugs. This group expressed a high level of satisfaction with the services they received as well as know the other supportive treatments. The primary support that was highly appreciated was the formation of counseling relationships. The outpatients produced a more significant success rate for satisfaction than the residential subjects. The results recorded showed inpatient subjects to have 60% success rates while the outpatients recorded 74%. The study showed that positive outcomes were observed as a result of high-quality service delivery and well-executed programs. The findings applied to all participants regardless of the patient's background or pretreatment characteristics. 

Q9. 

A reasonable follow-up question that this study's results raise is about the determination of service quality and in the use of path analysis. The study does not outline what measures are used to determine service quality. This important variable should have definable confines that can be replicated in a follow-up or comparative study. Examples of an accurate measure of service quality are provision of a one on one behavioral psychologist to address each target problem. The other follow up question would be to have all the variables in the path analysis included in the findings. This may be difficult because of the variety of target problems that each subject has. However, the inclusion of this information would give the study more credibility. 

Q10. 

The ideal study would use a smaller sample size to reduce costs and ensure efficiency. A sample size of 100 would be picked from various psychiatric facilities. The strategy used would be probability sampling. The study would run for one year. Service delivery would be determined by industry measures outlined by the American Psychological Association. Additionally, patients would have a precise path analysis that would assess their satisfaction. Moreover, reasons for the retention rates would also be found.