Substance use treatment systems are frequently characterized by fragmentation across clinical, relational, organizational, and policy domains. Existing frameworks guide treatment placement, ethical practice, and implementation, yet these frameworks are often applied independently. This presentation introduces an overlapping ecological framework that conceptualizes treatment environments as the interaction of three ecological domains: Self‑Determination, Quality of Treatment, and Societal and Political Forces. Structural gaps emerge when alignment among these domains breaks down, resulting in conceptual, implementation, and policy challenges that affect treatment access, delivery, and sustainability.

Building on this foundation, the session will introduce the Ecological Systems Theory Applied to Treatment Environments (ESTATE) model, which expands the overlapping ecology by illustrating how treatment systems evolve through interactions among lawmakers, educators and researchers, regulatory bodies, and practitioners. Whereas the overlapping ecological framework identifies structural gaps within treatment systems, ESTATE conceptualizes how stakeholder actions influence the emergence, persistence, and resolution of those gaps across a continuous research and implementation life cycle. This expanded ecological perspective clarifies how policy shifts, dissemination efforts, and contextual factors shape treatment environments over time and highlights opportunities for strengthening ecological alignment within substance use treatment systems.

By the end of this workshop, participants will:

1. Explore how overlapping ecologies influence substance use treatment environments and shape client engagement.

2. Identify three types of structural gaps—conceptual, implementation, and policy—that emerge from ecological misalignment and impact treatment outcomes.

3. Utilize the ESTATE model to recognize how stakeholder contact points (e.g., policymakers, educators, regulatory bodies, practitioners) influence the treatment field across the research and implementation life cycle.