Effects of Substance Abuse Central Intake on Treatment and Justice Costs

The cost-benefits of a central intake intervention for substance abuse treatment referrals were demonstrated using a transaction cost analysis on two cohorts of participants during the three-year initiative. Costs for clients receiving central intake services were compared with those just prior to t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of social work practice in the addictions Vol. 6; no. 4; pp. 115 - 129
Main Authors Finigan, Michael, Wolf-Branigin, Michael
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis Group 12.10.2006
Subjects
community corrections
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Criminal Justice
Intervention
Substance Abuse
transaction costs analysis
Treatment Programs
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Summary:The cost-benefits of a central intake intervention for substance abuse treatment referrals were demonstrated using a transaction cost analysis on two cohorts of participants during the three-year initiative. Costs for clients receiving central intake services were compared with those just prior to the intervention's implementation. In order to study the relationship between substance abuse treatment costs and avoided criminal justice costs, data from three administrative data sets were used. Results indicate that clients receiving the central intake intervention had approximately a 58 percent decrease in costs compared to clients not receiving the intervention. The initiative produced opportunity cost savings to treatment, court, and correctional systems, with completion being crucial to opportunity cost savings.
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ISSN:1533-256X
1533-2578
DOI:10.1300/J160v06n04_07