Employment services and substance abuse treatment.

This qualitative study of over 800 participants focused on the employment experiences of consumers of substance abuse treatment programs to provide a better understanding of what employment services are offered and what needs treatment agencies have in the area of employment services, examining barriers and facilitators from both the consumer and provider perspectives. Data were collected via a mixed research methodology of focus groups and surveys from July 2015 through June 2016 in a large Midwestern U.S. state. Employment is a challenge for persons with substance use disorders. Only a quarter of this study's large sample of substance abuse treatment consumers reported being cur-rently employed; and of those consumers who reported no current employment, greater than half reported that their current unemployment was due to their substance use. Persons receiving substance abuse treatment face many challenges in obtaining and maintaining employment. Treatment providers identified several barriers to implementation of employment services. They named an array of resources as needed, including increased funding for supportive employment programs and staff appropriate to the delivery of employment services. Some providers believed employment services to fall outside of their scope of practice. Data generated through this study may inform policy to invest resources in employment services within substance abuse treatment settings.

Overall gambling behaviors and gambling treatment needs among a statewide sample of drug treatment clients in Ohio.

Casino gambling in Ohio became available for the first time in May 2012. This gambling expansion led the Ohio substance abuse monitoring (OSAM) Network, Ohio's drug abuse surveillance system that collects drug trend data on an ongoing basis, to amend its protocol in June 2011 to include collection of data related to problem and pathological gambling to inform current treatment and prevention needs. OSAM collected gambling data from July 2011 to June 2012 via focus group interviews of 714 drug users recruited from alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment programs throughout Ohio. Participants who reported gambling during the past 6 months (N = 412) completed the South Oaks gambling screen. This study found a prevalence estimate of 12.1 % for probable pathological gambling among its statewide sample. Sizeable proportions of participants reported that they gambled more when using AOD (23.5 %) and used more AOD when gambling (19.4 %). A majority of study participants (59.2 %) reported participation in at least one type of gambling during the past 6 months, and of those participants, only 22.2 % reported ever having been asked about gambling while receiving AOD treatment services, with just 12.5 % reporting ever having had gambling treatment services offered to them. Men were 4.1 times more likely to screen positive for probable pathological gambling than women; non-Whites were 61.0 % more likely to screen positive than Whites. Findings presented in this report have the potential to help shape and strengthen problem and pathological gambling prevention and treatment measures in Ohio.

A meta-analytic review of HIV behavioral interventions for reducing sexual risk behavior of men who have sex with men.

This meta-analysis examines the efficacy of international HIV prevention interventions designed to reduce sexual risk behavior of men who have sex with men (MSM). We performed a comprehensive search of published and unpublished English-language reports of HIV prevention interventions that focus on MSM and evaluated changes in risky sexual behavior or biologic outcomes related to sexual risk. Data from 33 studies described in 65 reports were available as of July 2003. Studies with insufficient data to calculate effect sizes were excluded from the meta-analysis. Interventions were associated with a significant decrease in unprotected anal intercourse (odds ratio [OR] = 0.77, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.65-0.92) and number of sexual partners (OR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.61-0.94) and with a significant increase in condom use during anal intercourse (OR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.16-2.22). Interventions successful in reducing risky sexual behavior were based on theoretic models, included interpersonal skills training, incorporated several delivery methods, and were delivered over multiple sessions spanning a minimum of 3 weeks. Behavioral interventions provide an efficacious means of HIV prevention for MSM. To the extent that proven HIV prevention interventions for MSM can be successfully replicated in community settings and adapted and tailored to different situations, the effectiveness of current HIV prevention efforts can be increased.