Appendix A
Background of the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS)

 

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History

National-level data collection on admissions to substance abuse treatment was first mandated in 1972 under the Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act, P.L. 92-255. This act initiated Federal funding for drug treatment and rehabilitation, and required reporting on clients entering drug (but not alcohol) abuse treatment. The Client-Oriented Data Acquisition Process (CODAP) was developed to collect admission and discharge data directly from Federally-funded drug treatment programs. (Programs for treatment of alcohol abuse were not included.) Reporting was mandatory for all such programs, and data were collected using a standard form. CODAP included all clients in Federally funded programs regardless of individual funding source. Reports were issued from 1973-1981 based on data from 1,800-2,000 programs, including some 200,000 annual admissions.

In 1981, collection of national-level data on admissions to substance abuse treatment was discontinued because of the introduction of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Services (ADMS) Block Grant. The Block Grant transferred Federal funding from individual programs to the States for distribution, and included no data reporting requirement. Participation in CODAP became voluntary; although several States submitted data through 1984, the data were in no way nationally representative.

In 1988, the Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Amendments (P.L. 100-690) established a revised Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant and mandated Federal data collection on clients receiving treatment for either alcohol or drug abuse. The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) data collection effort represents the Federal response to this mandate. TEDS began in 1989 with the issue of 3-year development grants to States.

TEDS in the Context of DASIS

TEDS is one of the three components of SAMHSA’s Drug and Alcohol Services Information System (DASIS). DASIS is the primary source of national data on substance abuse treatment.

The core component of DASIS is the Inventory of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (I-SATS), a continuously-updated comprehensive listing of all known public and private substance abuse treatment facilities.

TEDS includes facilities that are licensed or certified by the State substance abuse agency to provide substance abuse treatment (or are administratively tracked for other reasons), and that are required by the States to provide TEDS client-level data.

The third component of DASIS is the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS), an annual survey of the location, characteristics, services offered, and utilization of alcohol and drug abuse treatment facilities in I-SATS.