African-American injection drug users: association between pretreatment services and entry into and completion of detoxification

Research suggests that African-American injection drug users, when compared with other ethnic and racial groups of injection drug users, are more likely to have no history of substance abuse treatment. The project evaluated was designed to attract African-American injection drug users to treatment by providing comprehensive pre-treatment services including street outreach, drop-in center services, case management, and motivational counseling. The overall program goal was to facilitate clients' acceptance of referral to treatment and readiness to utilize treatment. The evaluation described here examines whether, for this African-American population of hard-core drug users, utilization of pre-treatment services improved the intermediary treatment outcomes of entry into and completion of detoxification. Findings showed that high utilization of drop-in center services increased the frequency of entrance into detoxification programs. Entrance into detoxification has been shown to be significantly correlated with (a) entrance into further treatment, (b) reduced HIV/AIDS risk, and (c) successful linkage with health care and social services. Contrary to expectations, high utilization of pre-treatment services was not significantly correlated to increased completion of detoxification. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.