Cuyahoga CSAT
Comprehensive
Substance Abuse Treatment

Helping homeless women with substance-use disorders achieve recovery, housing, health, and income. A SAMHSA-funded collaborative project in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, U.S.A.

Project overview.

Who the project serves.

What the project does.

Project partners.

Project milestones.

15 March 2005
SAMHSA site visit completed.

Jennifer Keiser-Smith and Lolita Curtis were sent by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admnistration (SAMHSA) for a two-day visit to the Cuyahoga CSAT collaborative recovery project. Ms Keiser-Smith is with the Co-occurring Homeless Activities Branch of SAMHSA. Ms Curtis is with Johnson, Bassett, and Shaw, a private management review firm under contract to SAMHSA. Meeting with project partners at the beginning of their visit on Monday, 14 March 2005, they explained that the major purposes of their review were to evaluate the fidelity of the project to the application that was submitted to SAMHSA, the sustainability of the project when SAMHSA funding ends in 2010, and to offer technical assistance to project partners to help make the project successsful. They spent time at the Community Women's Shelter, at offices of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services Board of Cuyahoga County, the project leader, and at Recovery Resources, the provider of the project's case management services. They also met with Dr. Richard Stevens and staff members of the Institute for Health and Social Policy of the University of Akron, the project evaluator.

At the exit conference on the afternoon of 15 March, Ms Keiser-Smith provided project partners with feedback regarding the clinical aspects of the project. She noted that they had seen evidence of consistent and effective collaboration among the project partners, and that the best practices treatment model that was selected was an appropriate choice for the population of clients that the project is to serve. She said she was pleased with the enthusiasm of the Recovery Resources case managers, but said she had some concerns about the adequacy of the time they would have for clients when the project is fully underway. (Seven clients had been enrolled in the project at the time of the site visit. Fifty clients are to be served each year of the project.) She also said she was impressed with the strength-based assessments used by the project. She recommended that the project develop a system for recording process data, or information about the discussions, decisions, events, and milestones that are important to the project's implementation.

Ms Curtis provided feedback on the management of the project. She concluded that the project governance was effective and efficient, and was impressed with the policy-making structure and fiscal oversight of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services Board. She also concluded that policies are made in a sound manner, with good collaboration among project partners, and that sound fiscal controls are in place. She was pleased with the focus on outcome measures. She said she was impressed with the number, the strengths, and the cultural competence of the project workforce. She noted that project expenditures were $34,000 below projections at this time, but concluded that the variation was understandable during the first phase of project implementation. She recommended that the ADAS Board consider an update of their policy manual, and that Recovery Resources make further efforts to achieve diversity among its Board members. Project reviewers said they would sent a written report to the ADAS Board within 8-10 weeks.

Russell Kaye, Ph.D., M.B.A., Executive Director of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services Board of Cuyahoga County, is at left. The Board is the sponsor of the Cuyahoga CSAT project, and leads the execution of its activities.

At right is Richard Stevens, Ph.D., of the University of Akron's Institute for Social Policy Studies. Dr. Stevens is responsible for the project evaluation, and reporting project data to SAMHSA. Dr. Stephens has conducted project evaluations for many research projects, including Target Cities and the Persistent Effects of Treatment Study. At this time, he is also leading the evaluation of two other SAMHSA projects in Cuyahoga County, Ohio: the Adult Treatment Drug Court, and the Adolescent Targeted Capacity Expansion project.