The Workforce Survey is the first-ever national survey of treatment agency/service directors and staff. The survey aims to determine the levels and types of education and professional development experiences of directors and front-line workers, identify training and professional development needs, and explore factors that influence the ability of the workforce to provide services of the highest quality.
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This confidential mail survey was conducted from May to November 2004. The full report, Optimizing Canada's Addiction Treatment Workforce: Results of a National Survey of Service Providers, served as a primary reference for a national meeting of stakeholders tasked with developing a national workforce development agenda. It will also serve as a baseline against which CCSA and our partners can measure outcomes of activities undertaken to address issues arising from the survey. Finally, the results of the study will also clarify the need for further research into the training and professional development issues facing this workforce.
The Survey had five key objectives:
- Examine inter-regional and inter-sectoral differences in educational and training experiences of clinical staff in specialized addiction treatment programs with various types and levels of work experiences;
- Determine expectations of program managers in different regions and sectors for levels of education and training among staff with different levels of work experience;
- Describe experiences in different regions and sectors with respect to staff recruitment and retention;
- Determine views of service providers in different regions and sectors on various issues pertaining to professional development; and
- Determine the views of service providers in different regions and sectors on various options for enhancing the capacity of addiction treatment programs.
The survey targeted random samples of agencies/services in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, and all eligible agencies/services in other provinces and in the Northwest Territories. Two hundred and eighty-one (281) agencies/services were surveyed along with 2,720 staff working in these agencies/services. Completed questionnaires were received from 170 (60%) executive directors/service heads and 1,214 (44.6%) other staff. Responses were received from a large number of individuals in all regions and are viewed as providing a reasonably valid picture of professional development issues facing substance abuse treatment agencies in most parts of Canada.
We have made some corrections (Errata Notice) to the addiction treatment workforce survey relating to a question directed at executive directors/agency heads about their personal history of alcohol or drug problems. We have changed the percentage of positive responses from 0% to a range of 28% to 35% in the Prairies, BC/NWT and Quebec. This percentage is lower in Ontario (17%) and lowest in the Atlantic region (5%). A single variable was mislabelled in the dataset, accounting for the errors. The report was corrected on April 14, 2005.