MEASURING TREATMENT PROGRESS IN THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITIES

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This is a request for a NIDA Scientist Development Award (SDA). Candidate: Dr. David Kressel received his Ph.D. in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center in October 1992. Since then Dr. Kressel has been working as Principal Research Associate at the Center for Therapeutic Community Research (CTCR) at National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. (NDRI) where he has been studying "readiness" for substance abuse treatment, retention in treatment and treatment efficacy. Environment: The research location, CTCR at NDRI provides a rich, diverse and stimulating environment. NDRI houses more than 30 Ph.D. level scientists, who in 1993, conducted more than 20 funded grants. The candidate will receive guidance, training and support from George De Lewon, ph.D. who will act as preceptor. Dr. De Leon is CTCR's Director and an internationally acknowledged authority in the field of TC research. Research; The major research aim is to conduct an empirical investigation into therapeutic community (TC) treatment process. By the end of the award period the candidate will provide field tested, psychometrically refined empirical measures of client progress through TC treatment. This will be accomplished by conducting two pilot studies at three TC locations. These measurements will be developed within a framework of newly emerging recovery and treatment stage theories. Career Development; The candidate will acquire research science and management skills during the award period by participating in two major research efforts. The first will be an extensive secondary analysis of client readiness for treatment data collected on over 9800 subjects from 12 special population of drug abusers including women and racial/ethnic minorities in 18 different research projects. The second project will experimentally evaluate the impact of an instrument for guiding matching/referral decisions to three TC oriented modalities: long term residential (at least 12 months); short term residential (3-9 months) and non-residential treatment. To fund continued study of treatment process beyond the award period the candidate will submit a proposal to validate the new treatment progress scales involving a wider range of treatment modalities and client populations. Significance: The research finding from the two proposed pilot studies will provide the empirical basis for a basis for a larger planned study by the candidate to field test treatment progress instruments in several therapeutic community program sites. Results form this field test will be utilized by these programs for treatment planning and assessment. More broadly, the SDA will provide the foundation for a career focused on systematic research initiatives to advance understanding of drug treatment process. The candidate intends for his research to add substantially to the scientific literature and make practical contributions to improving substance abuse treatment. Process instrumentation is needed to address issues of enhancing retention in treatment and establishing the match between client and treatment modalities.