Legal involvement and substance use treatment engagement and outcomes

ABSTRACT

Legally mandated substance use treatment is prevalent but controversial and further research aimed at understanding this relationship is important for developing and informing social policy, social work practice, and education. This study used clinical data mining to examine the relationship between a client’s legal involvement, treatment engagement, and treatment completion. By using structural equation modeling, this study found that legal involvement did not have an effect on clients’ engagement in treatment or on completing treatment, while engagement was shown to have an effect on whether the client completed treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Discharge outcomes
• engagement
• legal involvement
• substance use treatment

Disclosure statement

During the time of data collection (i.e., extraction) and for a short time afterwards, the second author was paid by the organization where the data came from to provide clinical supervision. On occasion, he also consulted in various ways with the organization. Further, the owner and president at the time of data collection were family relatives. The organization is now under new ownership. There is no financial gain or other incentive tied to the study reported in this manuscript. The study is independent of the clinical support he was paid to provide.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by Brigham Young University, Office of Research and Creative Activities: Mentoring Environment Grant.