Data on Health and Well-being of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Other Native Americans, Data Catalog

Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS)

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Sponsor:	U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Description:	The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) is an administrative data system providing descriptive information about the national flow of admissions to providers of substance abuse treatment. The TEDS series was designed to provide annual data on the number and characteristics of persons admitted to public and private substance abuse treatment programs receiving public funding. Data collected include client demographics, client substance abuse problems, client mental health information, information on treatments received and source of client referral to treatment, and sources of payment for treatment. Admission data have been collected since 1989. In 2000, a discharge data set was added to allow TEDS to collect information on entire treatment episodes. TEDS is comprised of data that are routinely collected by states in monitoring substance abuse treatment facilities. In general, TEDS data cover those facilities that receive state funds for substance abuse treatment.
Relevant Policy Issues:	Health Disparities and Differences in Patterns in Drug and Alcohol Use.
Data Type(s):	Program reporting data
Unit of Analysis:	Admissions at publicly funded substance abuse treatment facilities
Identification of AI/AN/NA:	Data are reported in the following categories: Alaska Native (Aleut, Eskimo, Indian) (AN) American Indian (Other than Alaskan Natives) (AI) Asian or Pacific Islander Black White Other Single Race Two or More Races
AI/AN/NA Population in Data Set:	In 2004 the entire TEDS data include 1,875,026 cases. Counts for AI/AN cases are: AN: 5,186 AI: 38,785
AI/AN/NA Subpopulations:	American Indian alone and Alaska Native alone are available.
Geographic Scope:	The geographic scope of TEDS is national. Geographic indicators include state, primary metropolitan statistical area (PMSA), metropolitan statistical area (MSA), and core-based statistical area (CBSA).
Date or Frequency:	TEDS data are compiled yearly. Data for 1992-2004 are available online. New files will continue to be released approximately 18 months after the end of each year (e.g., the 2004 file was released in June 2006.)
Data Collection Methodology:	TEDS data are routinely collected by state administrative systems and then submitted to SAMHSA in a standard format.
Participation:	Participation is mandatory for publicly-funded clients. Other clients participate on an optional basis.
Response Rate:	TEDS is designed to include client-level data from all facilities that receive state funds for substance abuse treatment. In 1997, the most recent information available, TEDS was estimated to represent 83 percent of all admissions to these facilities. Also in 1997, TEDS was estimated to cover 67 percent of all known substance abuse treatment admissions, regardless of the source of funding for the treatment. The scope of admissions included in TEDS is affected by differences in state reporting practices, varying definitions of treatment admission, availability of public funds, and public funding constraints.
Authorization:	In 1988, the Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Amendments (P.L. 100-690) established a revised Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant and mandated federal data collection on clients receiving treatment for either alcohol or drug abuse. The TEDS data collection effort represents the federal response to this mandate.
Strengths:	TEDS contains a large number of AI/AN respondents. The data are collected on a key policy issue, substance abuse. Key demographic indicators are included for each state. One can identify by state, the number of admissions by race, age, gender, and education. There are multiple years of data available, and in addition to the annual files, there is a multi-year file available. Online analysis and subsetting, as well as “Quick Tables” online table generation, are available.
Limitations:	Several limitations are identified in the TEDS documentation that should be considered: The way an admission is defined may vary from state to state such that the absolute number of admissions is not a valid measure for comparing states. The number and client mix of TEDS records depends, to some extent, on external factors, including the availability of public funds. In states with higher funding levels, a larger percentage of the substance-abusing population may be admitted to publicly-funded treatment, including the less severely impaired and the less economically disadvantaged. Public funding constraints may direct states to selectively target special populations. For example, pregnant women or adolescents may be more likely to receive treatment. The representations of these populations in the data may vary accordingly. States vary in the extent to which coercion plays a role in referral to treatment. This variation derives from criminal justice practices and differing concentrations of abuser subpopulations. TEDS consists of treatment admissions, and therefore may include multiple admissions for the same client. Thus, any statistics derived from the data will represent admissions, not clients. It is possible for clients to have multiple initial admissions within a state and even within providers that have multiple treatment sites within the state. TEDS provides a national snapshot of what is seen at admission for treatment, but is currently not designed to follow individual clients through a sequence of treatment episodes.
Access Requirements and Use Restrictions:	Data are available to the public at no cost.
Contact Information:	SAMHDA User Support Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) P.O. Box 1248 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 (1-888) 741-7242 samhda-support@icpsr.umich.edu www.icpsr.umich.edu Data can be accessed at: http://webapp.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/SAMHDA-SERIES/00056.xml

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