Measuring Outcomes to Improve Treatment
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded project to refine the Polaris chemical dependency outcomes management system, Polaris-CD, to predict and improve engagement rates in treatment is moving ahead on schedule.
The research design and counselor report alterations have been completed, and preliminary work on the patient report has begun. The trial will take place at New Hope’s Freehold and New Brunswick outpatient facilities most likely beginning in April 2013.
In the interim, a core group of counselors and clinical supervisors will complete intensive, Motivational Interviewing (MI) training, conducted in-house by psychologists from the Yale University Department of Psychiatry. MI is considered a preeminent therapy in the treatment of substance use disorders. While our counselors and support staff are coached and supervised in MI as well as client directed, outcome informed principles; this hands on training with nationally recognized experts will serve to enhance counselor fidelity in applying MI principles effectively and insure that supervision across the agency is consistent and effective toward improving counseling skills. The instrumentation at the core of this work is targeted at identifying MI opportunities for “change talk” and the training will also focus in on how to best interpret and use information provided in the reports.