COUNTY WILL TRACK REHAB EFFECTIVENESS

Next month, substance abuse experts will start tracking the lives of some
Kern County residents who are in treatment programs because of a drug or
alcohol problem.

Local officials then hope to gauge which substance abuse treatment programs
work and which ones don't.

Kern will collect the information as part of a new three-year state and
national study assessing how well various treatment programs are working.

Kern is one of 14 counties selected by the state Department of Alcohol and
Drugs program to participate in the pilot study.

Results of the study could be used to change public policy or legislation in
the area of substance abuse treatment.

"The study is going to be a landmark for this particular field," said Terry
Robinson, drug and alcohol administrator for the Kern County Mental Health
Department.

"This is really the next step into the scientific knowledge of the alcohol
and drug field."

The county Mental Health Department is one of four Kern County treatment
programs participating. The others are Ebony Counseling Center and College
Health clinics in Lake Isabella and Ridgecrest.

Called the California Treatment Outcome Project, the study will develop and
test an outcome monitoring system for substance abuse treatment programs
over a three-year period. It will start July 1, 1999.

As part of the study, Kern will track about 500 clients for three years to
see how they are responding to treatment and what happens to them once
they're off the program, Robinson said.

Not every substance abuse treatment program is the same.

Some promote abstinence while others, such as the methadone maintenance
program, prescribe methadone to keep participants off heroin.

The study will be able to compare those kinds of programs and more, he
added. It also will monitor results, such as decreased use of drugs and
alcohol and improved family and social relationships.

The study could serve as a model.

Though state and county agencies monitor substance abuse programs, there
isn't a system that tracks why people succeed in one program and not
another, and how treatment affected their personal lives, said Maria
Caudill, spokeswoman for the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

"We want to look at what are really the outcomes" of substance abuse
treatment programs, Caudill said.

"There has been a lot of support from the (participating) counties. It's
really a collaborative effort."

The state has participated in other studies, which found for every $1
invested in treatment, $7 was saved in medical, social service and prison
expenses, Caudill said.

The study also showed treatment resulted in low recidivism rates in prison
and less demand on social services.