Medical and psychosocial services in drug abuse treatment: do stronger linkages promote client utilization?

Abstract

On-site service delivery appears to be the most reliable mechanism to link drug abuse treatment clients to ancillary services, while referral agreements and formal external mechanisms offer little detectable advantage over ad hoc referral. On-site case management might facilitate utilization of some services, but transportation seems a more important linkage mechanism overall. These findings imply that initiatives and policies to promote linkage of such clients to medical and psychosocial services should emphasize on-site service delivery, transportation and, for some services, on-site case management.