From Referral to Treatment: Implementation Processes in Juvenile Drug Treatment Court Programs

Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts (JDTCs) provide a critical opportunity to identify and treat youth with substance use disorders (SUD). Structuring JTDCs to minimize process complexity and time to treatment is important. Results across eight JDTCs indicate the number of steps between referral and enrollment varied from 2 to 7, and the potential wait time varied from 1 to 58 days. The number of steps between referral and SUD treatment varied from 3 to 8, and the potential wait time varied from 2 to 118 days. Information regarding JTDC process can inform the field about JTDC practice, including barriers to treatment as well as areas for improvement.