The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released findings from the 2006 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS).

N-SSATS is an annual census of substance abuse treatment facilities that provides data on the location and characteristics of alcohol and drug abuse treatment services throughout the United States. It also provides information on how widely these facilities and programs are used.

Nearly 13,800 facilities participated in the survey, reporting more than 1.1 million clients in treatment on March 31, 2006. Facilities operated by private non-profit organizations made up the bulk of treatment facilities (59 percent). Private for-profit facilities made up 28 percent of these services in 2006, with the remaining facilities operated by local governments (7 percent), state governments (3 percent), the Federal government (2 percent) and tribal governments (1 percent).

The 2006 N-SSATS shows that a growing proportion of patients are being treated in private for-profit facilities (from 26 percent in 2002 to 29 percent on March 31, 2006).

The report's other major findings include:

• Eighty-nine percent of clients in treatment on March 31, 2006 were in outpatient treatment programs, 10 percent were in non-hospital residential treatment programs and 1 percent were in hospital inpatient treatment settings. These proportions are nearly the same as they were in 2002.

• Nearly 92,000 clients in treatment on March 31, 2006 were under age 18 – roughly 8 percent of all clients in treatment that year. This proportion was consistent with data going back to 2002.

• Nearly half (46 percent) of all clients were in treatment for both alcohol and drug abuse on March 31, 2006. Approximately one third (35 percent) of clients were in treatment for drug abuse only, and 18 percent were in treatment for abuse of alcohol only.

• Ninety-one percent of all non-hospital residential beds and 90 percent of all hospital inpatient beds designated for substance abuse treatment were in use on March 31, 2006.

• The majority of treatment facilities (59 percent) received Federal, state, or local government funds for the provision of substance abuse treatment services. 

Copies of this report and all its detailed findings are available on the Web at http://oas.samhsa.gov/DASIS/2k6nssats.cfm. They may also be ordered free of charge by calling SAMHSA's Health Information Network at 1-877-SAMHSA-7 (1-877-726-4727). Request inventory number SMA06-4296.

For related publications and information visit the SAMHSA website.