For Immediate Release
March 6, 2007
Contact: Katrina Norfleet
301-587-1600
media@mayatech.com
MayaTech Reports on Disparities in the Placement of African American and Caucasian Youth in Substance Abuse Treatment Programs
The MayaTech Corporation-a leading provider of consulting and technical services to Federal agencies-today presented findings that show significant disparities in the level of care placement and the factors associated with deciding the level of care between African American and Caucasian youth with substance use disorders. These findings were presented at the 20th Annual Research Conference, "A System of Care for Children's Mental Health: Expanding the Research Base," held in Tampa, Fla., March 4-7.
MayaTech's research was conducted as part of a project funded by SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) to assess the patterns of and potential reasons for ethnic and racial disparities in substance abuse treatment among adolescents in the United States. The data used for this study were collected from 12 to 17 year old African American and Caucasian youths from CSAT-funded substance abuse treatment programs.
"The data we've analyzed suggest a systematic problem in matching the treatment needs of African American youth with the appropriate level of care, " said MayaTech Research Scientist Mesfin S. Mulatu, Ph.D., M.P.H. "Unfortunately, there is very little research that investigates the degree to which placement decisions are uniformly applied among various racial and ethnic groups."
In examining demographics, social and environmental risks, criminal justice involvement, substance abuse, and co-occurring disorders, the results indicate that compared to Caucasian youth, African American youth may be receiving significantly higher levels of care in residential facilities regardless of the level of their treatment needs. More specifically, the findings of the study show that:
- African American youth are 4 times less likely than Caucasian youth to be placed in outpatient treatment programs, and
- African American youth are between 2 to 3.3 times more likely to be placed in intensive outpatient and residential programs than Caucasian youth.
The research also confirms that different substance use and co-occurring disorders appear to affect placement differently by race. For example,
- Marijuana and alcohol abuse appear to be stronger factors for non-placement in outpatient and placement in residential programs among African Americans. In contrast, general anxiety disorder and illegal activities appear to be more important factors for non-placement in outpatient and placement in residential programs among Caucasians.
"These findings strongly indicate that clinicians may be using different criteria in reaching their decisions for placing African American and Caucasian patients," said Kimberly Jeffries Leonard, Ph.D., technical vice president and director of MayaTech's Center for Technical Assistance, Training, and Research Support. "It not only illustrates a need to reassess criteria used to place racial and ethnic minorities, but also demonstrates the need for cultural competency in clinical training, assessment and placement, and service delivery."
As expected, the frequency of substance abuse was the only consistent factor for placement in outpatient, residential, and continuing care programs for both groups.
The MayaTech Corporation is a diversified professional and technical services company that provides applied social science research and evaluation, conference and logistics management, information development and dissemination, technical assistance and training, and international development services to public and private sector clients.
The MayaTech Corporation
1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 900
Silver Spring, MD 20910-5645
Phone: 301-587-1600
Fax: 301-587-0709
Web site: www.mayatech.com
