CLIENTS WHO SEEK ON-LINE DRUG TREATMENT

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed project is a descriptive study of a previously unknown drug treatment population, those who seek on-line drug treatment. Although several face-to-face treatment modalities have been available for years, many people who would benefit from these traditional treatments still do not enter treatment. Among those who do enter treatment, many drop out before treatment is completed. Among those who do complete treatment, relapse is common. Clearly, there is a gaping disparity between treatment need and service delivery. Taken together, these findings suggest that matching treatment to client needs is critical to treatment retention and healthy post-treatment outcomes. Although the notion of matching treatment to client needs is not new and appeals to common sense, the types of services delivered and how they are actually delivered often do not reflect this common sense approach. The result of ignoring the "matching" issue is repeated treatment episodes and continued personal, societal, and financial cost as a result of unsuccessful treatment. The current situation of unmet drug treatment need, given existing treatment, presents an opportunity and need for developing new treatment modalities. In particular, this project will identify the segment(s) of the drug treatment population that choose to participate in an innovative on-line AOD treatment program and self-help group designed to address these needs, eGetgoing, eGetgoing provides interactive group counseling through live audio and video conferencing, eGetgoing's on-line treatment programs are intended to improve the accessibility, affordability and convenience of drug and alcohol treatment services. It also augments the treatment offered by traditional programs by providing long-term support designed to reduce the likelihood of relapse. Ideally, social and behavioral research begins with descriptive studies in order to inform researchers of the population(s) of interest to them. Without this "cultural competence," investigators may plod forth with increasingly complex studies that yield equally complex findings, with unknown generalizability to subgroups in the drug addicted community. Because this study proposes to investigate a new technology from the "ground floor," a descriptive study is appropriate. Descriptive analyses (t-tests, chi-square, frequencies) of eGetgoing clients will be used to: (1) identify those who seek on-line treatment, (2) provide comparative information on drug treatment clients from traditional modalities (using data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcomes Studies-Adults and Treatment Episode Data Set). Findings from this study may help address treatment needs of a previously unknown population and narrow the treatment need-service gap.