How mental health providers spend their time: a survey of 10 Veterans Health Administration mental health services.

Background: Allocation of provider time across clinical, administrative, educational, and research activities may influence job satisfaction, productivity, and quality of care, yet we know little about what determines time allocation.

Aims: To investigate factors associated with time allocation, we surveyed all mental health providers in one Veterans Health Administration (VHA) network. We hypothesized that both facility characteristics (academic affiliation, type of organization of services, serving as a hub for treatment of severely mentally ill, facility size) and individual provider characteristics (discipline, length of time in job, having an academic appointment) would influence time allocation.

Predictors of contact with public service sectors among homeless adults with and without alcohol and other drug disorders.

Objective: Homeless persons with alcohol and other drug (AOD) disorders face multiple problems that go beyond their AOD use. As a consequence, they commonly access services in multiple sectors in addition to the AOD treatment system. This study examined the predictors of contact with agencies in the health, mental health, social welfare and criminal justice sectors by AOD status among a probability sample of homeless adults in Houston, Texas.