WHY DENS?

          Until the formation of the DENS pilot sites,  there was no system of data collection in the United States focused upon the characteristics, nature and severity of problems of the patients entering into substance abuse treatment across the country.  In DENS, we are collecting information on the nature, number and severity of patients' problems at the time of treatment admission, their length of stay and type of discharge.  Although this is very basic information, even this type of minimal data has not been available since the 1970's.  Consequently, policy makers at the federal and state levels have not had the information necessary to recognize important trends occurring over the past two decades - trends that have ultimately had profound influence on the treatment system such as the emergence of AIDS, the cocaine and amphetamine epidemics, the influence of managed care, etc.

         There continues to be a significant need for "real time" information about patient characteristics and the acuity of their problems in planning and administering systems that deal with substance abuse problems.  This information is essential to national agencies such as ONDCP, NIDA, NIAAA, CSAT, CSAP, NIJ, NIMH, The Department of Veterans Affairs, and to State treatment systems.  To be useful, the information should be relevant to the multiple clinical, administrative, fiscal, evaluative, and policy questions that so regularly arise; and the information should be available rapidly and continuously to enable observation of changes over time.

         DENS provides this and a framework for a future, ongoing, nationwide treatment outcomes monitoring system.  As such, the DENS system can be utilized as a starting point for specific, targeted outcome studies, or for large, regional, or statewide outcome projects.  Several State Directors have already approached us about a "State-Wide" DENS, and researchers have submitted grants to fund outcome studies that build upon DENS work.