[acb-hsp] FW: good article on CB

[Baracco, Andrew W]

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 <http://www.soberforever.net>
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
<http://www.addictionpro.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Blog&mod=Blogg
er+Profile&mid=67D6564029914AD3B204AD35D8F5F780&tier=8&Blogger=3A9AB4E78
390430DB1DDDFC81E55F488> 

 

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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