A comparison of predictors of treatment drop-out of women seeking drug and alcohol treatment in a specialist women's and two traditional mixed-sex treatment services.
The problem of high levels of client drop-out in drug and alcohol treatment is frequently reported in the literature. In the course of conducting an evaluation of a specialist women's treatment service, the inadequacy of the data on women-specific predictors of treatment drop-out was highlighted. Using a retrospective design, the characteristics of 160 women who left treatment less than 5 days after admission were compared to the 160 women who stayed longer than 5 days and were enrolled in the evaluation study. The findings of this study suggested that women who were employed, had a history of sexual assault (especially in adulthood), nominated alcohol as their drug of choice, were not married, older than 25 years of age and had demonstrated a sympathy with the agency's treatment philosophy were less likely to drop-out of treatment. In addition, for lesbian women, women with a history of sexual assault in childhood, and those with dependent children, attendance at a specialist women's service reduced the incidence of treatment drop-out.
Copeland
J
J
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia.
Hall
W
W
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001315:Australia; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008875:Middle Aged; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000628:therapy*