While treatment can reduce substance use and related problems, most clients cycle through periods of recovery and relapse after discharge. Continuing care services have been shown to help youth maintain therapeutic gains and improve long-term outcomes, but they can be expensive to implement and are often not reimbursable for treatment programs. The proposed work builds on findings from adult studies and limited research with youth that have demonstrated the efficacy of delivering continuing care services by telephone. We propose to randomly assign 400 adolescents at discharge from residential treatment for alcohol and other drug use disorders to either usual continuing care (UCC) or UCC plus Volunteer Telephone Continuing Care (VTCC). UCC consists of referrals to outpatient services and mutual aid support groups in a youth's home community and are typically not initiated (Donovan, 1998; Godley & Godley, 2011). VTCC is delivered by volunteers who initiate and maintain a schedule of supportive contact through telecommunication for 9 months post-discharge. The VTCC protocol includes a subset of procedures from the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA; Godley et al., 2001), including increasing pro-social behavior (involvement with pro-recovery peers and activities), goal setting, and client-directed homework. All participants will be assessed at intake into residential treatment, discharge, and at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post-discharge. Data sources include standardized interviews, urine tests, and project records.
The aims of this study are to: 1) evaluate the main effect of VTCC on changes over time on improving pro-recovery peers and activities, decreasing alcohol and other drug (AOD) frequency of use, and AOD-related problems during the 12 months post-discharge; 2) evaluate the extent to which changes in pro-recovery peers and activities mediate the effects of VTCC on changes in AOD use and AOD-related problems over 12 months; and 3) evaluate the extent to which treatment readiness moderates the main effects of VTCC on changes in pro-recovery peers and activities, AOD frequency of use, and AOD-related problems at month 12. If proven effective, the use of volunteers will provide a new and potentially low-cost method for treatment programs to implement post- treatment support for adolescents and maintain continuing care services over the extended treatment time period recommended by McKay (2005; 2009).

Public Health Relevance

While treatment can reduce substance use and related problems, most clients cycle through periods of recovery and relapse after discharge. Post-treatment continuing care services have been shown to help clients maintain therapeutic gains and improve long-term outcomes, but they can be expensive to implement and are often not reimbursable for treatment programs. The proposed work intends to evaluate the effectiveness of volunteer-mediated telephone continuing care monitoring and support to adolescents discharged from acute residential treatment.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AA021118-05
Application #
9178628
Study Section
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Initial Review Group (AA)
Program Officer
Hagman, Brett Thomas
Project Start
2012-12-15
Project End
2018-11-30
Budget Start
2016-12-01
Budget End
2018-11-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Chestnut Health Systems, Inc.
Department
Type
DUNS #
125086173
City
Bloomington
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
61701
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Passetti, Lora L; Godley, Mark D; Kaminer, Yifrah (2016) Continuing Care for Adolescents in Treatment for Substance Use Disorders. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 25:669-84
Conrad, Karen M; Conrad, Kendon J; Passetti, Lora L et al. (2015) Validation of the Full and Short-Form Self-Help Involvement Scale Against the Rasch Measurement Model. Eval Rev 39:395-427
Garner, Bryan R; Godley, Mark D; Passetti, Lora L et al. (2014) Recovery Support for Adolescents with Substance use Disorders: The Impact of Recovery Support Telephone Calls Provided by Pre-Professional Volunteers. J Subst Abus Alcohol 2:1010
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Godley, Susan H; Hunter, Brooke D; Fernández-Artamendi, Sergio et al. (2014) A comparison of treatment outcomes for adolescent community reinforcement approach participants with and without co-occurring problems. J Subst Abuse Treat 46:463-71
Godley, Mark D; Godley, Susan H; Dennis, Michael L et al. (2014) A randomized trial of assertive continuing care and contingency management for adolescents with substance use disorders. J Consult Clin Psychol 82:40-51