In response to the high rate of illicit drug use by criminal offenders, Texas and other states are making large investments in drug abuse treatment for criminal justice settings. Included in this trend is an increase in short-term intensive supervision facilities for felony probationers with non-violent drug offenses who are eligible for participation in treatment programs as an alternative to prison. A 5-year project is proposed for assessing the impact of using cognitive strategies to enhance the effectiveness of intervention components in an involuntary residential treatment program for court-referred drug abusing probationers. The study will be carried out in collaboration with the 140- bed (90 male and 50 female ) Tarrant County Substance Abuse Treatment Facility (SATF), which provides 4 months of residential treatment to 420 probationers each year. The enhancement strategies--derived from our previous research and development in the area of applied cognitive psychology--include """"""""node- link mapping"""""""" with associated graphic approaches (i.e., visual representations of ideas, actions, and feelings) and """"""""scripted collaboration"""""""" (i.e., guided peer interactions to improve learning and self-understanding). In particular, they will be introduced into three central intervention components-induction/transition (representing self- assessments for guiding initiation and transition to progressive recovery stages), drug abuse counseling, and life skills and recovery education- with an expected positive impact on probationers leading to improved compliance with program rules, satisfaction with the program and personal progress, rapport with staff, and learning during treatment. After treatment, lower rates of drug abuse relapse and criminal recidivism are predicted benefits of these enhancements. The empirical objectives are (1) to evaluate the impact of enhancement strategies on during-treatment and follow-up outcomes, and (2) to identify individual difference variables related to the effectiveness of the enhancement strategies. Intake measures of probationer characteristics (e.g., clinical assessment and self-reports of behavior and psychosocial functioning) will be related to process and outcome measures via multiple- regression analyses. The project is also expected to help improve our methodologies for examining treatment processes and outcomes. Specialized manual-driven training materials on the implementation of successful enhancement techniques will be prepared for transfer to other settings.
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