The UK CDAR BHOS team conducts an annual outcome evaluation for the Recovery Kentucky Centers. The Recovery Centers were developed as residential settings for individuals to engage in self-help approaches to maintain abstinence and improve their odds of recovery from addictive levels of alcohol and drug use. Recovery Centers are not treatment facilities. They are housing environments in which individuals can pursue active use of self-help supports in gaining and maintaining recovery from alcohol and drug dependence.

The objectives for UK CDAR Recovery Center Outcome Study (RCOS) are to: (1) provide highly credible data with ethical standards to support the Recovery Center programs through collaborative evaluation practices; and (2) translate the research findings in ways that communicate to practitioners, community members, politicians, and other key stakeholders the meaning of research findings.

All of the currently established Recovery Centers participate in the independently conducted Recovery Center Outcome Study (RCOS). RCOS includes a face-to-face Phase 1 intake interview with program staff to assess targeted factors such as substance use, mental health symptoms, education, employment status, homelessness, and criminal justice involvement prior to entering the Recovery Center. Then, a 12 month follow-up telephone interview is conducted by UK CDAR staff with a selected sample of clients. Follow-up interviews are conducted by the UK CDAR BHOS research team and are independent of the treatment agency in order to confidentially examine client progress in treatment.

What is the CIS?
The Client Information System (CIS) is a secure website that was developed and tailored for each project to provide users with easier and intuitive access to the baseline or intake data collection system, secure data entry, and data management display features.

What can I do with the CIS?
The CIS has several important functions. Users can:

• Enter intake information for each client. Users can manage their intake or baselines through the CIS by first entering information about active clients. The CIS allows users to organize the client lists by status such as those needing baselines and those who have been discharged. Users can also search the client list. Users can track how many clients they did intake or baseline assessments on and, for some users, how many were discharged from the program within a user selected timeframe. After entering information for a client, users can then enter intake or baseline information through the CIS.

• Download a client narrative. After completing an intake interview, users can download a client narrative which summarizes, in narrative form, responses from the client. This narrative can be placed in the client’s file for future reference. Some of these narratives contain more clinical information as well. For example, some narratives also include the ASAM level of care recommendations consistent with the American Association of Addiction Medicine Patient Placement Criteria (PPC2-R), but also accommodate the more psychosocially-oriented models of care used by the CMHCs. Some narratives are tailored by site.

• Mid-level Reporting. Users can request a mid-level report which shows how many intakes have been submitted. Some of the mid-level reports display how many clients have entered the user’s facility and how many discharges have been made within a user selected timeframe.

For more information on the features and capabilities of the CIS, please visit (https://cdar.uky.edu/bhos/Data_Management.html).

What happens to the data after I enter the intake information online?
After intake or baseline and follow-up interviews are completed for a fiscal year, the data is analyzed by UK CDAR BHOS and the results are described in an annual report. Although the annual reports vary from year to year, there are five main risk factors that are examined for change over time: (1) substance use and abuse, (2) mental health status, (3) criminal justice system involvement, (4) employment, and (5) recovery supports. Some reports highlight additional risk factors. Many of the reports also describe the cost and cost-benefit of the services.
To view the latest annual reports for this project, please visit the links on the left side of this page, or click 2014_Report for the 2014 Annual Report, here 2013_Report for the 2013 Annual Report, and 2012_Report for the 2012 Annual Report.

What else can I look at to assess the success of our program?
Based on the results in the annual reports, several other shorter and more user friendly reports are created including a one page fact sheet, a Findings-at-a-Glance report, and an In Focus report.