Connecticut Partnership Targets Substance-Abusing Parents

Abstract

In 1999 a coalition of practitioners, researchers, and State and community treatment program administrators in Connecticut jointly developed, implemented, and conducted a successful research study of the use of motivational enhancement treatment (MET) techniques in a community treatment program. From its initial stages through its conclusion, the pilot study exemplified how researchers, treatment providers, and administrators can work together as equal partners to meet their own and each other’s needs and goals—and benefit the families of substance-abusing caregivers. By all accounts, overcoming the practical obstacles to conducting research in a working community clinic required a spirit of cooperation, mutual respect, ongoing communication, sensitivity to each other’s needs, a willingness and ability to adjust to those needs, and considerable extra work on the part of all participants. Yet, participants expressed a high level of excitement and enthusiasm about being part of the project, felt they benefited personally and professionally and expressed desire and willingness to participate in similar joint efforts. Today, some 2 years after completion of the study, the benefits of the collaboration continue to bear fruit in the training programs and clinical practices of the participating organizations and other agencies. In addition, the success of the study warranted its replication on a wider scale in NIDA’s National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN), a nationwide network of regional research centers linked to community treatment programs.