Drug treatment program
Consider this scenario. You are head of a planning team that has been asked to create a new drug treatment program. You ask your team to write a goal statement for the program. The following goal statements have been proposed:
The goal of this drug treatment program is to serve clients’ needs and to educate clients about the harm that drugs cause.
The goal of this drug treatment program is to assist our clients in reducing drug dependency and eventually ending it toward living drug-free lives.
Which goal statement do you think is more appropriate? Explain why you think the statement is suitable. Also provide an explanation as to why the other statement is not suitable.
Do the four components mentioned in the book—a time frame, the targeted population, the anticipated result, and a criterion—suffice to create an objective statement? Why?
Consider the following objective statement for checking recidivism to crime:
“The program will prevent inmates from committing crime, as measured by arrest or revocation of parole, for at least three years after they have been released back into the community.”
Sample Solution
Research studies on addiction treatment typically have classified programs into several general types or modalities. Treatment approaches and individual programs continue to evolve and diversify, and many programs today do not fit neatly into traditional drug addiction treatment classifications.Most, however, start with detoxification and medically managed withdrawal, often considered the first stage of treatment. Detoxification, the process by which the body clears itself of drugs, is designed to manage the acute and potentially dangerous physiological effects of stopping drug use. As stated previously, detoxification alone does not address the psychological, social, and behavioral problems associated with addiction and therefore does not typically produce lasting behavioral changes necessary for recovery.
