Title:The Need to Move from Describing to Evaluating the Effectiveness of Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Residential Rehabilitation Services: A Systematic Review
Volume: 10
Issue: 1
Author(s): Doug James*, Anthony Shakeshaft, Alice Munro and Ryan J. Courtney
Affiliation:
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), University of NSW, Sydney,Australia
Keywords:
Indigenous, alcohol, substance use, residential rehabilitation, client characteristics, qualitative research.
Abstract: Background and Objectives: Despite the importance of Indigenous drug and alcohol
residential rehabilitation, the knowledge supporting these services is limited. This paper aims to: (i)
identify the research output related to Indigenous drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation services;
(ii) classify identified studies according to their methodology; and (iii) describe key characteristics
of clients and services, and critique the research methods.
Methods: A PRISMA compliant search of 10 electronic databases for studies of Indigenous drug
and alcohol residential rehabilitation services from Australia, United States, Canada and New Zealand,
published between 1 January 2000 and 28 March 2016, was conducted.
Results: Of the 38 relevant studies, 20 were service descriptions, one was a thesis, 16 described
treatment or client characteristics and one was a pre/post evaluation. No systematic reviews or the
development or evaluation of measures was identified, with reviewed studies found to be of relatively
low methodological quality.
Conclusion: There are few published studies on Indigenous drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation
services, an average of one paper per annum internationally, and only one treatment outcome
evaluation. Three key features of the reviewed papers included (i) studied services were mostly located
in regional areas; (ii) services provided multi-component programs, with little alignment between
the models of care of other services; and (iii) the majority used qualitative, rather than quantitative
methods. Client outcomes will likely improve if future research can establish best-practice,
culturally acceptable models of care and increase the application of evidence-based, culturally validated
quantitative evaluation measures to complement existing qualitative research.
