Keeping more clients in treatment is the goal of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration's (SAMHSA's) Strengthening Treatment Access and Retention - State Implementation (STAR-SI) program, which recently awarded $6.7 million in grants.

The money will help states identify and implement methods to improve access and retention in community-based outpatient substance abuse treatment. "Outpatient treatment providers face tremendous challenges in their efforts to serve populations in need of treatment," said Assistant Surgeon General Eric Broderick, D.D.S., M.P.H., acting deputy administrator for SAMHSA.

"States are in a unique position to improve access to care and continuity of care by working with community-based providers to set systems in place that eliminate systems barriers, streamline administrative procedures, provide incentives, and assist provider networks in their efforts to improve access and retention performance outcomes. That is what the STAR-SI program is all about."

STAR-SI program builds on the work of the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment, a joint initiative with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which tested process improvement methods for treatment access and retention.

Grantees included the Florida State Department of Children and Families ($325,000 for the first year); the Illinois State Department of Human Services, Chicago ($325,000); the Iowa State Department of Public Health ($324,896); the Maine State Department of Health and Human Services ($325,000); the Ohio State Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services ($325,000); the South Carolina State Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse ($324,996); and the Wisconsin State Department of Health and Family Services ($287,744).