Therefore, these results should be viewed as conservative estimates of effectiveness of substance abuse treatment. The data suggest that, in this study, clients were generally candid in reporting drug use. The linkage between active substance abuse and criminal involvement has been well established. In addition to the reduced criminal activity noted above, gains in employment and housing appear to be an ancillary benefit of substance abuse treatment. In addition, there was a small but statistically significant decrease in the number of respondents reporting the receipt of general assistance payments.
Substance abuse is known to be a major contributor to poor health.
Although small in absolute number, male respondents' reports of high risk homosexual sexual behaviors, including unprotected sex and having more than one sexual partner, also demonstrated significant decreases in the one year after treatment, in comparison to one year before treatment. Data were collected across several important outcome areas, including drug and alcohol use, physical and mental health, criminal activity, social functioning, and employment. Clients who were incarcerated during either the entire before or after 12 month reference period are excluded from these analyses. Also excluded are clients whose follow-up interview took place less than 5 months or more than 16 months after treatment exit, with the exception of clients in the methadone maintenance modality. These preliminary analyses do not control for additional treatment that may have been received by clients between exit from the index admission to follow-up.