Audit of Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities in ... - SA HealthInfo

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYA cross-sectional audit of substance abuse treatment facilities in Free State, Limpopo,Mpumalanga, North West and Northern Cape was conducted from October 2007 toFebruary 2008. A revised version of the Treatment Services Audit (TSA) Questionnairewas used to collect information from a number of domains including the organisationalcharacteristics of the treatment facility (such as ownership status, intensity of careprovided, and organisational resources); the type of services provided; the profile ofclients served; the organisational environment of facilities, barriers to treatment entry forclients from underserved groups; the cultural, gender, and age appropriateness ofservices, and monitoring and evaluation activities.Substance abuse treatment services in Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North Westand Northern Cape are provided predominantly by private, non-profit facilities. Privatenon-profit facilities also serve the highest number of clients from underserved groups.Consequently, it is recommended that state funding to these facilities be increased.Furthermore, despite a high demand for substance abuse treatment services, treatmentfacilities are under-utilised. It is thus recommended that interventions which target thefactors underpinning this under-utilisation of services are designed and implemented.The range of treatment services provided by substance abuse treatment facilities in FreeState, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Northern Cape is limited, with fewfacilities providing comprehensive services that integrate ancillary medical and mentalhealth services with core addiction services. This audit found that facilities are morelikely to conduct medical assessments than provide clients with substitution medicationand/or detoxification services. Case management techniques may help facilitate thedelivery of integrated and comprehensive services so that clients have access to ancillarymedical and mental health services.In addition, findings suggest that Black/African and female substance abusers remainunder-represented in substance abuse treatment facilities. In terms of activities that targetbarriers to treatment entry for historically underserved population groups; while a7