A Madison-based agency and a UW-Madison health services division launched a nationwide campaign Monday to teach individual substance abuse treatment centers strategies to increase outreach to alcohol and drug users.
The Adopting Changes to Improve Outcomes Now Campaign, or ACTION, calls on 500 treatment agencies to test specific new strategies during an 18-month period with the goal of retaining more clients.
According to the campaign, nearly half of all those who enroll in substance use treatment programs drop out.
“All too often, people with a substance use problem do not get the help they need because of barriers in treatment,” Terry Cline, an administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, said in a statement.
ACTION, which is run out of Madison, looks to minimize the percentage of dropouts by improving access to treatment, increasing engagement by those who are in treatment and smoothing transitions between stages of care.
“We can help people make pretty dramatic changes in their businesses by adopting these specific practices,” said ACTION director Kim Johnson.
Specifically, ACTION looks to address the problem of waiting lists. “You have to get them in the moment,” Johnson said of substance abusers seeking help.
“Most treatment programs have waiting lists and by the time people get off the list they’re probably not in crisis anymore, they’re probably back using.”
At UW-Madison, a division of the university’s Center for Health Enhancement System Studies has been participating in the ACTION for four years.
The program, the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment, or NIATx, teaches businesses strategies for getting people into treatment.
In the future, Johnson said NIATx and the ACTION campaign would strive to get centers to offer same-day treatment admission. The campaign allows specific businesses to enroll online at actioncampaign.org and will communicate with them via the Internet or office hour phone sessions.
Eighteen months from now, ACTION hopes to have 500 agencies adopt at least one of these changes.
“Our calculations are if we can have 500 agencies adopting at least one change, then we can impact 55,000 people,” Johnson said.
