Understanding the client characteristics of Aboriginal residential alcohol and other drug rehabilitation services in New South Wales, Australia

Douglas B. James; Ks Kylie Lee; Tania Patrao; Ryan J. Courtney; Katherine M. Conigrave; Anthony Shakeshaft

doi:10.1186/s13722-020-00193-8

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Understanding the client characteristics of Aboriginal residential alcohol and other drug rehabilitation services in New South Wales, Australia

Journal article

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Understanding the client characteristics of Aboriginal residential alcohol and other drug rehabilitation services in New South Wales, Australia

Douglas B. James, Ks Kylie Lee, Tania Patrao, Ryan J. Courtney, Katherine M. Conigrave and Anthony Shakeshaft

Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, Vol.15(1), pp.1-14

2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13722-020-00193-8

PMID: 32727625

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Abstract

Indigenous

residential rehabilitation

alcohol

amphetamines

drug

Background Aboriginal alcohol and other drug residential rehabilitation (residential rehabilitation) services have been providing treatment in Australia of over 50 years. However, there are no studies in Australia or internationally that document characteristics of clients attending Indigenous residential rehabilitation services worldwide. This is the first multi-site paper to describe key client characteristics of six Indigenous (hereafter Aboriginal Australians as the term recommended by the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of New South Wales) residential rehabilitation services in Australia. Methods All recorded client admissions between 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2016 were considered from six operating services in the Australian state of New South Wales. Data collected were classified into categories based on demographics, treatment utilisation, substance use, mental health and quality of life characteristics. Means, median and percentages were calculated (where appropriate). Results There were 2645 admissions across the six services in the study period, with an average of 440 admissions per year across all services. Participants were aged between 26 to 35 years, with fewest participants aged 46 +. Program length ranged from 12 to 52 weeks (mean of 12 weeks). The completion rates and length of stay for each service ranged from less than two to more than 12 weeks. The principal drug of choice was alcohol and amphetamines in half of the services. Not all services used them, but a range of tools were used to measure treatment, substance use and mental health or quality of life outcomes. Conclusion This study is the first internationally to describe the key features of multiple Aboriginal residential rehabilitation services. The variation in tools used to collect client data made it difficult to compare client characteristics across services. Future research could explore predictors of treatment completion, identify opportunities for standardisation in client assessments and validate cultural approaches of care. These efforts would need to be guided by Aboriginal leadership in each service.

Details

Title: Understanding the client characteristics of Aboriginal residential alcohol and other drug rehabilitation services in New South Wales, Australia
Authors: Douglas B. James (Corresponding Author) - UNSW Sydney
Ks Kylie Lee - The University of Sydney
Tania Patrao - The University of Queensland
Ryan J. Courtney - UNSW Sydney
Katherine M. Conigrave - Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
Anthony Shakeshaft - UNSW Sydney
Publication details: Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, Vol.15(1), pp.1-14
Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd.
Date published: 2020
DOI: 10.1186/s13722-020-00193-8
ISSN: 1940-0640
PMID: 32727625
Copyright note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Data Availability: Data for this project is stored at the University of NSW based at National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, 22-32 King Street Randwick New South Wales, 2031 Australia
Grants: Working with Indigenous services and communities to reduce the harms from alcohol, 1117582, National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - NHMRC
A Centre for Research Excellence: Building Indigenous research capacity to find solutions to alcohol problems, 1117198, National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - NHMRC
Reducing the social gradient in tobacco smoking rates: The road less travelled; Novel and innovative paths for improved cessation rates and outcomes, 1148497, National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - NHMRC
Organisation Unit: School of Health - Psychology
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991241467002621
Output Type: Journal article

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