G Rowan-Szal | PubMed Health

PubMed1995

Client engagement and change during drug abuse treatment.

Previous work has shown length of time in drug abuse treatment is associated with better outcomes, but the role of therapeutic engagement and process needs further examination. In this study, the total number of counseling sessions attended by 557 clients in their first 90 days of community-based outpatient treatment was examined in relation to indicators of treatment delivery and progress. Significant client improvements were found on behavioral criteria and psychosocial functioning during the first 3 months of treatment, and session attendance was positively related to favorable behavioral changes as well as to positive perceptions by clients and counselors of their therapeutic interactions. Client background, treatment motivation, and therapeutic focus of counseling in Month 1 were significant predictors of session attendance in the first 3 months following admission to methadone treatment.

Adult↗

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A simple reinforcement system for methadone clients in a community-based treatment program.

Clients in a community-based methadone treatment program earned stars for attending counseling sessions as scheduled and for providing clean urines. These stars were later redeemed for contingent rewards (food or gas coupons or bus tokens) according to one of three randomly assigned reward schedules, including high reward (four stars per prize), low reward (eight stars per prize), or delayed reward (those who had to wait 3 months to earn a prize). Clients in the high-reward condition showed a pattern of increasing the number of stars earned for group sessions and clean urines across the 3-month intervention. All clients, independent of reward condition, attended significantly more group counseling sessions during the months that contingent reinforcers were available than in the months prior to, and after, the intervention. Finally, urinalysis data indicated that, in the postintervention period, high-reward clients had fewer dirty urines than did low-reward or delayed-reward clients. This study suggests that a simple system of recognizing client progress with stars and modest prizes for performing specific behaviors can be an effective tool in increasing clinic attendance rates and reducing positive urines.

Adult↗