External influences on drug treatment interventions: East Palo Alto's Free-at-Last.

Unlabelled: External influences on community-based drug treatment program outcomes have not been adequately accounted by either treatment providers or evaluators. In 2001-2003, a cohort of 197 African American and Latino crack cocaine and heroin users was interviewed at intake into the Free-at-Last's treatment program in East Palo Alto, California.

Objective: The goal of this research was to identify, and then measure, the impact of a series of theory-based, hypothesized external influences on 3 client treatment outcomes: (1) program completers, (2) dropouts, and (3) referrals to more intensive inpatient treatment.

Drug treatment clients and their community peers: how they differ.

Free-at-Last is a drug treatment program in East Palo Alto, California, a low-income predominantly African American community in Silicon Valley. In this research, a cohort of treatment clients was compared to a random sample of community residents. Both groups used drugs.