TY - JOUR TI - Disability, substance abuse and public disability benefits DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3BP037G PY - 2007 AB - The public disability benefit system in the United States (US) currently does not award disability benefits to persons who have a primary diagnosis of substance abuse. A qualitative analysis examines the national disability systems of ten countries - Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the US - and determines that the US system is the only system having this limitation. Quantitative research methods are used to more fully understand the prevalence of substance abuse within the US disability benefit system and to examine the relationships among benefit receipt, substance abuse, participation in substance abuse treatment, and employment in the US. Using data from the 2002 and 2003 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, the results demonstrate that some types of substance use disorders are more likely among certain disability beneficiaries and that disability beneficiaries who have substance use disorders are more likely to access treatment than persons with substance use disorders who are not beneficiaries. Results could not confirm, however, that those beneficiaries who access treatment are more likely to return to employment than those who do not access treatment. KW - Planning and Public Policy KW - People with disabilities KW - People with social disabilities KW - Substance abuse LA - English ER -