Narconon International and Chestnut Health Systems Present “Routine Outcome Monitoring” at National Drug Court Conference
(PRWEB) June 05, 2014 -- Research is clear: treatment works—but does a specific treatment in a specific setting work? Routine collection of data from individuals who are completing drug treatment and returning to their families or communities is essential not only to help foster continued recovery but also to monitor and maintain the quality of care provided. Despite the clear benefits to treatment quality and results, implementing routine monitoring has proven challenging—until now.
As presented to the 20th Annual Training Conference of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) in Anaheim, California held at the end of May, 2014, routine collection of post-treatment data to maintain high quality programs can be accomplished.
Between 2004-2007, a research team lead by Dr. Richard Lennox, senior scientist at Chestnut Health Systems, Inc. collaborated with Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma to develop a simplified system that obtains post-treatment sobriety and recidivism rates along with key indicators of social functioning with approximately 20 interview questions. Marie Sternquist of the Chestnut Health Systems research team reviewed key system components that make it work within the confines of even small, underfunded programs.
Lennox compared this simple evidence-gathering procedure favorably to more complex and much more expensive outcome studies. “It is fine to have detailed evidence gleaned from one good study,” said Lennox, “but most of you want to know how your treatment program is doing now, not five or ten years ago. This ROM method helps you get continuing present time ‘snapshots’ of how things are going.”
Narconon International President Mr. Clark Carr explained to conference attendees that the use of this system by Narconon centers small and large has benefited clients greatly. The ROM survey system was also used by Narconon Eslov in Sweden, he said, to measure three years of results. Both Eslov and Arrowhead, Carr said, found similar low rates of relapse reported, which they credited in part to Narconon’s post-program long-term follow-up of graduates, coupled with the ROM survey.
You can access the published paper on the ROM survey procedure at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3782393/.
For further information on the Narconon program, visit http://www.narconon.org.
Clark Carr, Narconon International, http://www.narconon.org, +1 323-962-2404, [email protected]
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