Uses of individualized client goals in the evaluation of drug and alcohol programs

Abstract

The issue of accountability increasingly places demands on administrators to evaluate program results. This paper attempts to show that individualized goal setting by clients can provide information which can be used (1) to compare stated program goals to actual client goals, and (2) as a realistic, individualized set of outcomes for follow-up evaluation. Evaluation of many drugs and alcohol programs is often based on the premise that abstinence is the goal of all treatment programs for all clients. While this may be a proper ultimate goal, it may not be sufficiently precise for more specific or short-term evaluations. A technique recently developed in the mental health field is Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS). In this approach, individual goals are usually developed through negotiations between client and counselor and provide individualized measurement of client success in treatment. GAS was tested on a sample of clients entering public and private drug and alcohol treatment facilities: (1) nearly all clients in the sample chose to set goals, although they were not required to do so; (2) a content analysis aggregated individual goals into a group profile of percent of clients writing goals in each of 17 goal areas; (3) goal content changed over successive interviews; and (4) there were differences in goal content between age and facility subgroups.