Employment Outcomes of Chemical Dependency Treatment and Additional Vocational Services Publicly Funded by Washington State. A Four-and-a-Half Year Follow-up Study of Indigent Persons served by Washington State's Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Treatment and Support Act (ADATSA). Key Findings. Briefing Paper.

In 1987, the state of Washington created a program--the Alcohol and Drug Addiction Treatment and Support Act (ADATSA)--to treat adults addicted to alcohol or other drugs. This paper sows the results of a four-and-a-half year follow-up study of clients receiving treatment and reviews the effectiveness of ADATSA. Whereas the immediate goal of the program is abstinence, ancillary goals include improved personal coping skills, vocational and social skills, with a long-term goal of self-sufficiency. The typical client is male, unmarried, white, in his early thirties, often homeless, and involved with the law. The clients who were followed (N=1,215) typically had a fifteen-year history of substance abuse with prior treatment episodes and many of these had physical, mental, or emotional problems. The report compares the overall employment outcomes, the effects of adding vocational services for clients, trends through time in employment levels, and average earnings among employed clients across treatment groups and against a control group. Findings show that program participants were more likely to be employed than clients not receiving ADATSA-funded treatment. Statistical models, calculation methods, and tables of supporting data are included in the appendix. (EMK)