Rewarding attendance: Does it lead to success in treatment?

What if addiction treatment programs gave out prizes to patients just for showing up to treatment? Some might call this a waste of money, or bribery, or counter-productive to addressing the underlying issues of addiction. Others say it actually helps patients succeed. Brandywine Counseling is studying this very question as part of the Advancing Recovery project.

Since February 15, the Alpha Program has offered motivational incentives to encourage participation early in treatment. Beginning when the patient first returns after admission, they get a chance to win a prize. They could win anything from a “Good Job” certificate up to a $75 gift certificate. Our “prize closet” also includes scented candles, backscratchers, Dunkin’ Donuts cards, and recovery-themed coins.


It’s a simple premise: Show up to your first session with your counselor and you get one draw from the fishbowl. Show up to your second and third sessions and get five draws each time. Sounds easy enough, right? In fact, attendance in treatment is a challenge, particularly early. Before we started this program, 2 out of every 10 patients dropped out before their first session, another 2 by the second, and another 2 by the third. The incentives are our attempt to help them through the most difficult part.

So is it working? Results are just starting to come in, but it appears our retention is improving. As the graph below shows, 5% more patients are completing their first session (89%) and staying at least 45 days in treatment (76%). We are especially keeping our eye on the second and third sessions once the numbers come in. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks.

Watch HBO’s “Addiction” Online

HBO’s “Addiction” documentary is available for viewing on their web site. I recently got a chance to watch it and thought it was very well done. There are some powerful stories that are worth seeing whether you’re familiar with addiction or not. These stories are told by the people who lived them in their own words, which really humanizes the subject matter.

If you haven’t seen "Addiction" yet, you can watch it here. I recommend these segments:

A Mother's Desperation: Her daughter was doing whatever it took to get heroin. Donna would do whatever it took to save her.




The Science of Relapse: Interesting discussion of the brain’s “stop” and “go” impulses.




Opiate Addiction: A New Medication – Acadia Hospital is featured in this segment about Suboxone. Like BCI, they are an organization leading the way toward better patient access and retention; in fact, we’ve collaborated with them for national presentations.

Once you've seen the film, drop us a comment to tell us what you thought.

Homelessness and Addiction: Four Clients' Stories

The Cape Gazette featured Project Renewal in one of a series of articles about homelessness in Delaware. Four clients in various stages of recovery share their stories.

Other articles in this four part series look at Casa San Francisco, the struggle for the homeless to find shelter, and what the state proposes to do about homelessness.

Health Professionals Summit on AIDS and Injection Drug Users

Chris Zebley, Nurse Practitioner at the Lancaster Center, attended the Health Professional Summit on US Global AIDS Policies for Injection Drug Users, sponsored by Physicians For Human Rights on 3/5 and 3/6, and sent this report:

We discussed current US global polices related to the HIV pandemic throughout the rest of the world including southeastern Europe, China, Russia and India due to intravenous drug users (IVDU). I was able to speak with Congressmen from Delaware, Maryland and Virginia advocating that current U.S. polices along with funding PEPFA-(President's Emergency Plans for Aids Relief) must include, based on evidence based practice, not only condoms and HIV medicines but sterile syringe exchanges, opioid substitution, outreach, and mental health.

IVDU's are very stigmatized in other countries and in some countries are not given HIV medicines. For every person given HIV meds there are 3 new infections. One third of all HIV cases outside Sub-Sahara Africa are caused by IVDU. 80% of all HIV cases in Russia are due to IVDU.

This was a wonderful opportunity to have several voices speak for the voiceless while advancing human health, dignity and justice.

BCI Receives Heroes of Humanity Award

BCI was awarded the Heroes of Humanity Award by the Delaware Chapter of the Art of Living Foundation March 3 at their Silver Jubilee celebration. The award was presented by Wilmington Mayor James Baker.

The Art of Living Foundation is dedicated to serving society by strengthening the individual. They do this by offering programs that eliminate stress, create a sense of belonging, restore human values, and encourage people from all backgrounds, religions and cultural traditions to come together in celebration and service.

The Heroes of Humanity Award honors organizations helping to uphold Human Values through compassion, respect and upliftment of the individual, and through actions that generate harmony in our society. Brandywine Counseling thanks the Foundation for this honor.

For more information on the awards and to learn more about the Art of Living Foundation, visit www.uplifthumanvalues.org.

Help Create Our “Words of Recovery” Mural

BCI needs your help with a creative and fun project. We have a volunteer artist working on a mural at the Lancaster Avenue site. This will be in the main entry hall so it will be the first thing you see when you come through the door.

The mural will be made up of mosaic tiles with words and catch phrases related to recovery written on them. You can help by sending us a list of words or phrases that have special meaning to you.

We want to show how addiction grows into recovery, so we’re looking for three sets of words:
1) Negative words associated with addiction, such as: fear, guilt, mistakes, shame.
2) In-between words associated with getting help, such as: decisions, acceptance, contemplation, One Day at a Time.
3) Positive words associated with recovery, such as: family, goals, Hugs not Drugs, beginning.

Post your list here by February 28. Your words might inspire those who need it most.

New HBO Film Explores ADDICTION

I got an e-mail today about HBO's upcoming Addiction Project. This is the first I've heard about it but it looks very interesting. The project is supported by Join Together, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), and Faces & Voices of Recovery. It's being called "a groundbreaking multi-media campaign to help Americans understand addiction as a treatable brain disease, spotlight new treatment advancements, and provide hope for long-term recovery."

Here's more information from their Tell a Friend page:

Dear Friend,
HBO's groundbreaking series, ADDICTION, premieres March 15 - 18. ADDICTION tells the stories behind substance use, explores new advancements being made in addiction research, and it introduces new and effective treatments.

Find out more about ADDICTION: www.AddictionAction.org.

Once there, you will find a full broadcast schedule, special events in your community, opportunities to host your own house party to watch the show, and other ways to get involved and help spread the word about ADDICTION's message of hope for treatment and recovery.

The series premiere, during a free HBO preview weekend March 15-18, marks an historic opportunity to raise public awareness and spread hope to those suffering from alcohol and drug addiction - and to those who love them.

Can I count on you? Find out more now at:
www.AddictionAction.org.

Thanks!

United Way exceeds its goal

United Way of Delaware announced that they beat their 2006 fundraising goal, raising $22 million. We at Brandywine join them in saying thanks to all of you for your support.

We’ve already had a chance to personally thank those of you who designated your contribution to us. But if you spread your Community Impact donation among many agencies, you also deserve our thanks. Large or small, your donation makes a difference at Brandywine.

How do your dollars help? Our Community Outreach Program makes contact with over 2,000 people a year. We take the fight against AIDS to the streets of Wilmington – to the people whose high risk lifestyles put them at risk. Through education, testing, and referrals to treatment, we help them recognize they need to change unsafe behaviors like drug use and unprotected sex. Peer to peer, one person at a time is the way to get the message across.

This is the same outreach team that was on the front lines of Delaware's response to last year’s heroin crisis. By word of mouth, they explained the risks of using tainted heroin and how overdose could be prevented.

More charitable dollars for this program means more resources, and more people we can help. It’s a community impact in a very real sense. Thank you Delaware!

BCI Provides Quality Care, Says Joint Commission

Brandywine Counseling received a surprise inspection from the Joint Commission during the last week and a half. This is a survey of the quality and safety of our treatment programs, using the same guidelines as major hospitals. They’re interested in how well we actually deliver critical health care services.

It used to be that the Joint Commission would give us advance notice of when the surveyors were coming. Recently, they introduced unannounced visits, so that health care organizations are truly accountable on a daily basis. This was the first of Brandywine’s unannounced visits.

How do we prepare for this? Our staff is committed to quality on a daily basis, from the internal audits we do as a self-check, to the relationships we build with each client in order to meet their individual needs. Still, we wonder how our efforts will be judged at survey time.

As it turns out, we had no reason to worry. The surveyors who visited the BCI Alpha, Newark and Lancaster sites had high praise for us. The list of positive comments was too long to mention here – the completeness of our patient records, our use of data to measure outcomes, our clients’ comments about us, and our innovative ideas for the future, just to name a few.

It’s gratifying to know that your organization is doing a good job. Congratulations to all the staff whose day-to-day work makes this possible.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Brandywine Counseling Blog. Here, our clients, our staff, and the community can find the latest news and happenings around our agency.

At BCI, we place great importance on listening to our clients. Our treatment services exist to serve the needs of Delawareans addicted to alcohol or drugs. Staying attuned to these needs helps us provide the best possible service. Likewise, we want to hear from members of community who are concerned about addiction, HIV/AIDS, and related issues.

Please feel free to leave us a comment on what you read here. We're listening!