Outreach engagement efforts: are they worth the effort?

The present study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of an outreach strategy designed to engage substance-abusing individuals who did not keep their initial treatment appointment. After missing their first scheduled appointment, telephone contact was attempted for 267 consecutive prospective patients as part of an attempt to engage them in treatment. Results indicated that this telephone contact was useful at prompting these individuals to both reschedule and arrive for intake. Our concern that persons who failed to keep initial appointments might be less motivated for treatment was not supported, as results indicated that treatment retention for these subjects was similar to that of a sample of individuals who arrived for intake as scheduled. These results support the value of outreach efforts as a means of engaging substance-abusing individuals who otherwise might not have experienced treatment.