Popular trends in treatment and referral may have a profound effect on the treatment-seeking population as well as on the treatments being delivered. The past decade has seen the emergence of public interest groups dedicated to the prevention and prosecution of drunk driving, Americans' increasing health consciousness, a decline in the public's preference for distilled beverages, and an increased awareness of the hazards of heavy drinking and those who need a drug rehabs program.

The emergence of the trends noted above, as well as the shifts or changes in those factors that have traditionally influenced treatment research, offer increased opportunities for policy-oriented studies. Such work might include research on the economic forces shaping the demand for, and provision of, treatment services; access to an official interventionist; the geographic distribution of treatment; reliable and valid techniques of prevalence assessment; popular trends and concepts in the field; alternative treatment systems; and outcome monitoring of samples from multiple facilities. The development of data bases is another fruitful area: data are needed to track emerging trends in patient characteristics, population demographics, alcohol use, and utilization of services. There have already been notable achievements in the area of treatment evaluation. Some of these advances are discussed below, together with several of the major, unresolved evaluation research issues.

Real Estate