Last Updated: August 2022

Author: Division of Substance Use Programs, Vermont Department of Health

Note:  This is no longer a preferred measure. It does not capture the wide range of services needed by those completing treatment.

Individuals with addiction have complex lives. There is also shame associated with the disease of addiction and can result in isolation for those struggling. This isolation prevents people from accessing positive supports that are needed to recover from addiction. Socials supports include non-professional or peer-driven organizations devoted to helping individuals who have addiction related problems and include self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA), supported housing, recovery coaching, faith-based services, after-school activities, as well as substance-free gathering places such as the recovery centers. The Division of Substance Use Programs (DSU) collects information about the level of social supports at both treatment admission and discharge and has set a goal of increasing the level of social supports at discharge over that at admission. Current data indicates that 65% of those receiving outpatient and Medication Assisted Therapies (MAT) in Vermont have no social supports on admission. Only 45% of the population has social supports on discharge.

Note that COVID-19 has had an impact on all impact on all services through 2020 and 2021.  Some recovery services were disrupted or went remote during the pandemic. 

Together these performance measures focus on whether Vermonters are better off as a result of the Health Department's Substance Use Program. They do so by looking at the quality and efficiency of these programs and services. This performance measure is important because it measures if Vermonters are BETTER OFF; it measures quantity and quality of program effect.

DSU Preferred Providers

Recovery Centers

Faith Based Community

Housing Community

DSU Staff

Social Supports must match the need of the individual and be available on a timely basis. They must be appropriate and supportive to the individual's needs and wants.Supports must align with the stage of recovery and be population specific. For instance, women may have different social support needs than men. Those with trauma in their lives may need unique supports. Adolescent social supports must be aligned with the client's developmental stage.

Providers focus on quality improvement processes such as NIATx (http://www.niatx.net/) to determine the root causes of low change in social support between admission and discharge.

• Publish provider level data
• Include as an Agency of Administration pilot measure
• Decrease variability in provider performance
• Provide technical assistance to providers with low rates of social supports
• Include as a grant incentive measure
• System Improvements
• Improve collaboration between the providers and recovery centers
• Increase programming and hours of operation of recovery centers
• Provide clinical supervisor training to emphasize social supports through the treatment and recovery process
• Improve aftercare planning to emphasize the importance of connecting to social supports as part of the recovery process
• Increase focus on this measure

Reporting is dependent on timely reporting by providers as measures cannot be calculated until data has been received and processed. This may result in delayed scorecard updates. and changing historic data.  Some providers have not reported since late 2019.

Data Source:  SATIS