Assessing Drug and Alcohol Treatment Needs of General and Special Populations: Conceptual, Empirical and Inferential Issues

Abstract

“Needs assessments” have become increasingly important in guiding resource allocations to publicly funded drug and alcohol treatment programs. Although technical progress in conducting needs assessments in recent years has occurred, virtually all approaches used to identify treatment needs of general and special populations suffer from conceptual, empirical, and inferential problems. This article clarifies the more important problems and offers recommendations about how to improve needs assessments.