CENTER ON THE CONTINUUM OF CARE (C3 CENTER)
MONITORING AND ADAPTING ADDICTION TREATMENT
Current Projects
Recovery Homes in Philadelphia; Amy Mericle, PhD; John Cacciola, PhD: This is a feasibility study of recovery homes and recovery home residents in Philadelphia. The study is funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The TRI research team is interviewing site contacts from 25 representative recovery homes in Philadelphia to assess the organizational characteristics of the houses, the services provided to the residents, and the residents served. A smaller sample of these homes will be selected for focus groups and resident surveys (self-administered) and from that resident sample (n=approximately 120) approximately 25 residents will be invited to participate in a 3 month follow-up survey collecting information on their service needs and service use. Once collected, the data will be analyzed and used for a larger, proposed NIDA-funded study evaluating the effectiveness of Philadelphia recovery homes in enhancing prospects for long-term recovery.
Evaluation of Web-based Recovery Monitoring with Clinical Alerts; Adam Brooks, Ph.D. A web-based concurrent recovery monitoring system (RecoveryTrack™) has been implemented in all publicly funded outpatient substance abuse treatment programs in the state of Delaware. Although monitoring and feedback approaches have been recommended, and many lines of evidence support their potential value, none has been formally evaluated in community based substance abuse treatment. The specific aims of this project are to conduct a three-phased study to modify RecoveryTrack™ so that counselors and their supervisors are provided with an automated Clinical Alert when a patient’s regularly administered monitoring assessment indicates a high risk of drop out from treatment, and to adapt a cognitive-behavioral intervention (CBI) to equip counselors in responding to “High Risk” patients. The feasibility of Clinical Alerts + CBI at a small treatment program will be assessed in advance of conducting a pilot randomized clinical trial at one large treatment program. It is hypothesized that patients who evidence a high risk for attrition will have longer lengths of stay, attend more treatment sessions, have more drug-free urine results, and receive more supplemental services in the Clinical Alerts + CBI condition. RecoveryTrack™, including Clinical Alerts + CBI, will be a monitoring and intervention system by which minimally trained clinical staff can easily incorporate an evidence-based psychosocial intervention into their usual practice.
Adaptive Treatment for Alcohol Dependence; James McKay, Ph.D. One of the major problems for outpatient specialty programs that treat alcohol use disorders is low rates of engagement following intake appointments. Even among patients who achieve initial engagement, rates of sustained participation are low, particularly following relapse. This pilot project will employ an adaptive protocol to evaluate innovative, telephone-based approaches to increasing rates of initial engagement in patients with alcohol use disorders who complete an intake in a community-based Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), but fail to engage in treatment over the next two weeks. These interventions use motivational interviewing (MI) approaches to engage patients in IOP or an alternative form of treatment. For patients who do initially engage in IOP, a preliminary evaluation of a telephone-based method for re-engaging patients who subsequently drop out will be conducted. This pilot study will generate feasibility data for these interventions, as well as estimates of effect sizes for engagement and alcohol use outcomes.
Evaluation of the Bronx Community Recovery Center; Amy Mericle, Ph.D. The Bronx Community Recovery Center (BCRC) was developed to provide an array of services and resources that support recovery from alcohol and other drugs among individuals age 18 and over, their families, and other affected persons in the community. The primary goals of the BCRC project are to establish collaborations with recovery support services in the Bronx, increase awareness and demand for continuing support for persons in recovery, and build recovery capital to promote sustained abstinence from alcohol and drug use for individuals in recovery who are participating in BCRC recovery support services. TRI staff are partnering with staff at the BCRC to conduct an evaluation of this program and these goals. Specifically, the evaluation will entail (1) ensuring compliance to GPRA reporting requirements; (2) tracking implementation progress; (3) documenting process outcomes; (4) examining key participant outcomes.
