The alcohol treatment-seeking process from a problems perspective: responses to events.

All consecutive intakes of a US county's publicly operated and contracted alcohol treatment programs were sampled (N = 747) and interviewed regarding problematic events in the year prior to treatment. The paper examines the relationship of the responses of family and friends and of community institutions to events reported as major reasons for coming to treatment. Events (N = 1824) are the unit of analysis. For most events, treatment was suggested less than half the time the event occurred, and there was little agreement between families and friends and community institutions for which types of events treatment was suggested. There were positive relationships between treatment suggestion and the reporting of events as major reasons for treatment.