Benefits of Continuing Linkages to Recovery Homes Following Departure

Abstract

There is a need to better understand social mechanisms that increase or decrease successful departures from recovery homes. A prior study found that involuntary departure as well as one’s personal social capital were important to sustaining recovery following the departure from recovery homes. Little is known about what house contextual or interpersonal factors explain who successfully exits these recovery settings. In the present study, we examined continued linkages to Oxford House recovery homes following departure, using questions concerning 1. Continuing to visit their previous recovery home, 2. Maintaining contact with the Oxford House Organization, 3. Continuing to see people they saw as residents following departure, and 4. Continuing to attend the same AA/NA meetings that had been attended as an Oxford House resident. Residents with continued linkages to the recovery home were found to evidence significant increases in self-efficacy as well as abstinence following departure. For those that remained most linked by answering all four questions positively, 95% remained abstinent following leaving the recovery homes. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of possible changes in constructing a new social identity.