National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services: 2006

Highlights:

• SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies (OAS) conducts the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS), an annual census of facilities providing substance abuse treatment. This survey is designed to collect data on the location, characteristics, and use of alcoholism and drug abuse treatment facilities and services throughout the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and other U.S. jurisdictions. The reference date for the 2006 one-day census was March 31, 2006.

• The number of reporting facilities has increased since 2000 and remained relatively constant between 2002 and 2006. There were 13,428 reporting facilities in 2000. There were 13,720 reporting facilities in 2002 and 13,771 facilities in 2006. The number of clients in substance abuse treatment on the survey reference date decreased by less than 1% from 1,136,287 clients in 2002 to 1,130,881 in 2006.

• Facility characteristics: Most of the substance abuse treatment facilities continue to be operated by private non-profit organizations. In 2006, 59% were private nonprofit organizations, 28% were private for-profit organizations, 7% were operated by local governments, 3% by State governments, 2% by the Federal government, and 1% by tribal governments.

• Client distribution: Between 2002 and 2006 on the survey reference date, the proportion of substance abuse treatment clients in private for-profit facilities increased from 26% to 29%; the proportion of substance abuse treatment clients in local State, and Federal government operated facilities fell from 17% to 15% and in tribal government facilities remained unchanged at 1%.

• Facility focus: On March 31, 2006, 62% of the facilities reported substance abuse treatment services was their primary focus of activity, 27% of the facilities reported that their primary focus was a mix of mental health and substance abuse treatment services, 8% reported mental health services and 2% reported general health care as their primary focus.

• Facility utilization: On March 31, 2006, 91% of non-hospital residential beds and 90% of all hospital inpatient beds designated for substance abuse treatment were in use.

• Payment options and facility funding: A sliding fee scale for substance abuse treatment charges was used by 63% of all facilities, 53% of all facilities offered substance abuse treatment at no charge to eligible clients who could not pay, and 4% provided substance abuse treatment at no charge to all clients. Federal, State, or local government funds for the provision of substance abuse treatment services was received by 59% of all facilities.

• Special services Offered: Most facilities (83%) offered specially designed programs: 37% offered programs or groups for persons with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders, 32% for adult women, 32% for adolescents, 31% for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs (DUI/DWI), 28% for criminal justice clients, 25% for adult men, 14% for pregnant/postpartum women, 10% for persons with HIV or AIDS, 7% for seniors or older adults, and 6% for gays or lesbians. Substance abuse treatment services in sign language for the hearing impaired were offered in 29% of all facilities and in languages other than English in 45%.

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