[acb-hsp] FW: good article on CB

[J.Rayl]

Hi.  I think these programs are all wonderful and fine; however, in the US, we are doing good to get 21 days of treatment or psychoeducation or away time--call it whatever you will; forget 6 weeks.  And the other long-term program spoken of in the previous article?  What a dream?  Nonetheless, I do agree, its a wonderful dream approach in a time long gone by.
I still maintain, as do my substance dependence clients, that the best predictor of change is readiness to stop.

Jessie Rayl
thedogmom63 at frontier.com
www.facebook.com/Eaglewings10
www.pathtogrowth.org

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Baracco, Andrew W 
  To: Discussion list for ACB human service professionals 
  Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 2:24 PM
  Subject: [acb-hsp] FW: good article on CB


  Subject: good article on CB

   

        It's cognitive-behavioral, but it's not 'treatment'
        Retreats' educational model allows company to succeed with home-based classes 
        by Gary A. Enos, Editor 
       
        Traditional addiction treatment centers likely would find it difficult to maintain the continuity of their services if the recipients of their efforts were not physically present. For Amsterdam, N.Y.-based Saint Jude Retreats, a transition to home-based offerings has been easy to manage because their services for people with substance use problems are presented as education, not treatment.

        Billing themselves on their website as "the leading, original non 12 Step program," Saint Jude Retreats recently launched a new version of its home program, which in today's shaky economy is becoming a desirable alternative to the three retreats where individuals stay for six weeks of classes. The cost of Saint Jude Retreats' six-week educational program ranges from about $11,000 to $18,000, while books and materials for the at-home study cost $200, explains Saint Jude Retreats co-founder Mark Scheeren.

        Scheeren says Saint Jude Retreats was established about 20 years ago as an alternative to the disease model approach. "We teach people how to rebuild their lives," he says, and this in turn results in alcohol or drugs ceasing to be a component of their existence.

        The retreats' residents are called "guests," not "patients" or "clients." The curriculum is described by the trademarked Cognitive Behavioral Education (CBE), but this is not cognitive-behavioral therapy, and the education has a predetermined duration.

        "Cognitive-behavioral therapy suggests an implied relationship of parent to child," says Scheeren. "Here the person's on the same plane as the educator." He adds, "You have to learn this information in six weeks, and then our job is over."

        Saint Jude Retreats is regulated by the state Health Department as a temporary living establishment, not by the state substance abuse agency (since it is not a treatment facility). Scheeren says that at present about 60% of its guests have not succeeded in treatment settings, while about 40% believe from the start that a disease model approach to addressing their problem is not for them.

        Saint Jude Retreats' home program consists of 22 hour long online classes, while those who attend the retreats receive two classes a day over six weeks.

        Data on Saint Jude Retreats' website include information on a Clearwater Research, Inc. analysis indicating a 62% long-term sobriety rate for the organization's guests.
       

   

        Comments: 
       
              Friday, October 07, 2011 3:17:23 PM by doogiem



              Good article. Probably representative of things to come - and about time, because at least half of what we've been doing in our two treatment programs has been educational in nature. From day one, our patients are given notebooks/workbooks, attend lectures ("didactics"), are given assignments that they are expected to complete in order to "graduate." And we bill insurance companies and State funding sources "treatment" fees for all of this. CBE may not be "treatment" or "(psycho-)therapy", but it sure seems "therapeutic" and educational. And affordable! Research will, in time, reveal its efficacy.
             
       

   



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