|
|
National Drug Control Strategy
Update 2003
February 2003
Data Supplement:
Improving Federal Drug-Related
Data Systems
ONDCP supports improvements to enhance the
policy relevance of federal drug-related data
systems. The Data Subcommittee has supported
the following innovations:
- The National Institute of Justice is expanding
and revising the Drug Use Forecasting
program into the Arrestee Drug Abuse
Monitoring (ADAM) system. Plans call for
the expansion of ADAM to 75 sites with
probability-based samples representative of the
respective metropolitan areas. The new
ADAM instrument includes questions to
promote the estimation of the prevalence of
drug abuse among arrestee populations
comparable to those generated for the general
household population. The first ten new
ADAM sites were funded by ONDCP in 1998.
- The Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA) enlarged
the sample for the National Household Survey
on Drug Abuse (NHSDA)—reaching nearly
quadruple the size—permitting, for the first
time, estimation of drug-use prevalence at the
state level. The first wave of new data became
available in August 2000.
- The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment
(CSAT) began implementation in FY 2002 of
the National Treatment Outcome Monitoring
System (NTOMS). NTOMS combines the
work of two data systems funded by ONDCP:
the Drug Evaluation Network System, which
provides real-time data on treatment admission;
and the Random Access Monitoring of
Narcotics Addicts system, which estimates the
size and characteristics of chronic drug-using
populations. NTOMS will provide essential
data on treatment effectiveness, waiting time,
and chronic users.
- Center for Substance Abuse Prevention
(CSAP) has several activities to promote state
data systems. For example, 20 states now
voluntarily collect common process and
capacity data using software developed under
Minimum Data Set I (MDSI), which permits
collection from the provider through the
substate, state, and federal system levels.
Similarly, states can voluntarily report on five
common outcome measures in the pilot SAPT
block grant application for FY 2000.
- SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies (OAS)
is undertaking a redesign of the Drug Abuse
Warning Network (DAWN) system, in efforts
to maintain alignment with the health care
delivery system. DAWN is an important
source of national and local data on substance
abuse derived from information on visits to
hospital emergency departments (EDs) and
drug-related deaths identified by medical
examiners (MEs). DAWN collects data on the
demographic characteristics of substance
abusers and the specific drugs involved in each
drug-related ED visit or death. The new
design will begin initial phase-in in 2003 with
the following:
|
1) |
expanding the sample of emergency
departments to include 45 metropolitan
areas, |
|
2) |
establishing a sentinel hospital system
for early reporting, |
|
3) |
changing the criteria for identifying
a DAWN case, and |
|
4) |
converting from paper to electronic forms. |
- ONDCP and the Department of Justice
are leading an interagency effort to develop
drug availability models—from source
countries through availability in the United
States—for cocaine, heroin, marijuana,
and methamphetamine. Results from this
project are providing critical measures
enabling assessment of the Nation's supply reduction
programs.
Last Updated: May 7, 2003
|
