Relapse Prevention Approaches With Drug-Abusing Offenders

• NCJ Number: 150325
• Journal: Center for Substance Abuse Treatment Communique Dated: (Spring 1993) Pages: 25-27
• Author(s): R H Peters
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 3 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Most drug-involved offenders have repeatedly cycled through the criminal justice system, and key factors that contribute to this offender group's risk of relapse have been identified.

Abstract

In recent years, a significant number of offenders are involved with alcohol and other drugs. New arrestees testing positive for drugs are charged with a wide range of crimes, including drug possession and sales, burglary, robbery, larceny, theft, prostitution, assault, and probation or parole violation. Drug-involved offender relapse tends to accelerate the level of criminal activity. Key factors that contribute to the risk of relapse include a chronic history of drug abuse, a poor history of involvement in drug treatment, low socioeconomic status and/or unemployment, mental health symptoms, various stressors related to criminal justice supervision, inadequate skills for handling social pressures to use drugs, and returning to inner-city drug areas or families that provide exposure to high-risk situations. Relapse prevention strategies are a useful adjunct to drug treatment at all stages. Relapse prevention principles involve identifying high-risk situations and other antecedents to relapse and developing relapse coping skills. Psychoeducational approaches used in relapse prevention programs can be easily integrated within such traditional modalities as therapeutic communities, intensive outpatient treatment, and chemical dependency or 12-step programs. Relapse prevention focuses on the individual's responsibility for monitoring and preventing relapse episodes. Specific relapse prevention techniques include self-assessment, individual "behavior chains," self- monitoring and the development of coping skills, and motivational strategies. Program-level strategies to prevent relapse concern the development of ex-offender peer support groups in the community, aftercare groups, group interventions involving drug-free family members, and handbooks for ex-offenders that describe social services and other programs available in the community.