Alcohol and Drug Treatment Services Hawai‘i 5-Year Trends (2010 – 2014)
From Hawaii Department of Health September, 2015
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This is a five-year trend report presenting information from Hawai‘i agencies that provided alcohol and drug treatment services during state fiscal years 2010 to 2014, with a focus on the latest reporting year, 2014, as the year of primary interest. Some comparisons across the reporting years are made to highlight trends in treatment services, clients, and outcomes. The report contains information on the socio-demographic characteristics of the adolescents and adults who were admitted to treatment programs. The use of different modalities of services, funds expended on services, and data relating to treatment service outcomes and status of follow-up are also presented. This report is limited to data from agencies that are funded by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division (ADAD) of the Hawai‘i Department of Health.
In 2014, ADAD funded 24 agencies that offered services to adults at 52 sites and 10 agencies that provided services to adolescents at 107 sites. From 2010 to 2014, the number of sites increased 26% for adolescents and 16% for adults. The overall trends show that the numbers of admissions for treatment services were relatively stable across the five reporting years with a slight decline in 2011. Similarly, the numbers of clients receiving services and the amount of funds expended on services were relatively stable during the same time period with a slight increase from 2011 to 2012.
In all five reporting years (2010 to 2014), the most common source of referral was self-referral, followed by the criminal justice system. Marijuana was the primary substance for the majority of adolescents during the same reporting period (60% - 62%), followed by alcohol (28% - 32%). For adults 18 to 49 years, methamphetamine was the most frequently reported primary substance at the time of admission (42% - 50%), followed by alcohol (21% - 31%). Compared to previous years, in 2014, the highest percentage of adults reported the use of methamphetamine as primary substance (50%). In contrast, the lowest percentage reported the use of alcohol as primary substance (21%). Across the five reporting years, adults 50 years and older reported alcohol the most frequently (44% - 58%), followed by methamphetamine (23% - 41%). In particular, the percentage of adults 50 years and older that reported methamphetamine as the primary substance had increased each year without a decline in any given year (23% in 2010, to 28% in 2012, to 41% in 2014).
The percentage of clients utilizing each type of treatment modality varied by age group in 2014. All adolescents were admitted to outpatient programs (i.e., Outpatient Treatment and Intensive Outpatient Treatment programs), whereas more than half of adults (63% of adults and 56% of older adults) received outpatient treatment from various outpatient services (i.e., Intensive Outpatient Treatment, Outpatient Treatment, and Methadone Maintenance programs). The remaining clients (37% of adults and 44% of older adults) were admitted to residential services (i.e., Residential Treatment, Therapeutic Living, and Residential Social Detoxification programs). 3
More than 17 million dollars in state and federal funds were spent on substance treatment services during 2014, a 7% increase from funding in 2010. Of the total funds, a bit less than half (45%) were expended on Native Hawaiians and around 10% were used on services for pregnant and parenting women with children. More than three-fourths (78%) of the total funds were allocated to two treatment programs, Outpatient Treatment and Residential Treatment.
In 2014, a total of 3,929 clients were served. More than half of the clients (53%) receiving treatment services were adolescents. The largest group of clients came from the City and County of Honolulu (67%), followed by Hawai‘i (15%), Maui (13%), and Kaua‘i (5%) Counties. There were more male than female clients statewide (60% male vs. 40% female), and about two-fifths of those receiving services identified themselves as Native Hawaiians including mixed Hawaiians (42%). A similar trend was observed across all five reporting years.
A total of 5,109 cases were either discharged from treatment services (3,754 cases) or transferred to a different program (1,355 cases) in 2014. Among all 3,754 discharged cases, 43% completed treatment with no drug use, 18% completed treatment with some drug use, 25% left the facility before completing treatment, and the remainder were discharged for other reasons.
The rate of completing treatment with no drug use varied greatly across treatment modalities. In 2014, the vast majority of clients from the Residential Social Detoxification modality (88%) completed treatment with no drug use. The second highest percentage of this group was from Therapeutic Living, in which 37% of clients completed treatment with no drug use, followed by Outpatient Treatment (32%).
At six-month follow-up in 2014, almost all adolescents (99%) were attending school and 69% of adults were employed. The majority of adolescents (61%) and adults (72%) reported not using any substances in the past 30 days prior to follow-up. The vast majority of adolescents and adults continued to have no arrests, no hospitalizations, and no emergency room visits since discharge, across all reporting years.
PDF: Alcohol and Drug Treatment Services Hawai‘i 5-Year Trends (2010 – 2014)
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