Proposed is a Stage I pilot to develop a new intervention, Mentorship for Alcohol Problems (MAP), for individuals with alcohol use disorders in community treatment programs by pilot/feasibility testing, manual writing, training program development, and adherence/competence measure construction in response to PA-07-111 issued by NIAAA. We believe that mentorship has important therapeutic advantages for treating alcoholism. Historically, mentorship has been a key component of many existing treatment/recovery approaches, but mentorship has not yet been separated out as a formalized therapy and empirically tested. The proposed intervention, MAP, formalizes client-to-client mentorship relationships as an optional module that can be incorporated into professionally run outpatient alcohol treatment programs based on a wide range of treatment philosophies. It will be comprised of selection, training, and supervision procedures to enable successful recovering patients to serve as Mentors for clients who are early in the recovery process and newly admitted to treatment. Mentoring activities will revolve around assisting Mentees in progressing toward individualized treatment goals and entail 1 hour group mentoring and 1-4 hours of mentoring interaction outside of the treatment setting per week starting during the first 3 months of treatment when vulnerability to relapse and drop out is high. Mentors will be offered mentorship training consisting of 1 hour training sessions 2 times per week for 4 weeks prior to mentoring and supervision provided by professional staff in addition to providing the group and individual mentorship contact to the Mentee. In Phase-I, 10 Mentors will participate for 6 months in a piloting of MAP until 30 Mentees receive MAP for 12 weeks. All participants must meet a SCID-I alcohol use disorder diagnosis, but Mentees must be actively using alcohol and Mentors must be abstinent from alcohol/substances and receiving treatment for at least 6 months. Behavioral and biological measures will be conducted at baseline, weekly, monthly, and termination. During Phase II, 4 focus groups will be held with the 40 pilot participants and 40 assessments will be completed with the participant's clinicians to evaluate satisfaction and guide the manual revisions.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AA016160-03
Application #
7631389
Study Section
Health Services Research Review Subcommittee (AA)
Program Officer
Mattson, Margaret
Project Start
2007-09-30
Project End
2012-05-31
Budget Start
2009-06-01
Budget End
2012-05-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$381,375
Indirect Cost
Name
New York University
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
121911077
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10016
Tracy, Kathlene; Guzman, Deborah; Burton, Mark (2014) Treatment Process and Participant Characteristic Predictors of Substance Use Outcome in Mentorship for Addiction Problems (MAP). J Alcohol Drug Depend 2:
Tracy, Kathlene; Burton, Mark; Miescher, Annatina et al. (2012) Mentorship for Alcohol Problems (MAP): a peer to peer modular intervention for outpatients. Alcohol Alcohol 47:42-7