Site Comments:
Webmaster

Updated:
January 2, 2008

 
Background and Overview

The TCU Treatment System includes a set of assessments and manual-guided interventions that “target” specific needs and status of clients in different stages of change during treatment. Evidence for these stages provide foundations for the TCU Treatment Process Model (Simpson, 2004, 2006) and involves induction into treatment, engagement in treatment, early recovery in treatment, adequate retention before treatment release, and preparation for community re-entry.  The needs and functioning of the organization (i.e., treatment agency) affects the delivery of treatment services and may also need attention.  An integrated set of TCU Assessment Forms are available to link client and program measures into this process.  All of these TCU resources are “copyrighted” in an effort to limit commercial or for-profit applications, but there is no charge to service providers for downloading and using them.  (See Permissions and Obtaining Forms.)

TCU Intervention Manuals are described below, organized according to their typical and strategic applications to the sequence of client needs and progression during treatment.  They can be used in “mix-n-match” combinations or as supplements to other treatment resources.  Although they are categorized here in relation to conceptual treatment stages, there is a variety of sequential applications possible within and across the different stages of care.  Because the organization plays a critical role in this process, manuals are also available to help initiate and guide selected organizational interventions.

Historically, these interventions were developed in response to service gaps or unmet counseling and organizational needs of substance abuse treatment programs participating in a series of NIDA-funded grants to TCU (especially DATAR, CETOP, Women/Children, and CJ-DATS projects).  Treatment settings have included community-based outpatient methadone and drug-free services, prison-based treatment, and intensive residential care.  Their clients have included men and women, sometimes with children, reporting a wide variety of drug use histories and legal involvement (such as in-prison treatments and diversion programs for parolees or probationers).  With modest adaptations in language and illustrations, the interventions have been shown to be applicable across highly diverse settings.  Manuals have been designed to be highly focused, practical, and flexible in order to meet the therapeutic needs of the “real-world” programs.   Counselor training events for these materials (generally based on a train-the-trainers model) emphasize intervention objectives, role-playing exercises and practice, and maintaining adherence to core elements of each intervention.

Two general types of manuals are available.  The original and more comprehensive manuals for TCU Interventions usually call for 8-10 sessions per intervention.  The set of TCU “Brief” Interventions are generally designed for a 4-session intervention (although depending on time allowances, these can be combined into fewer – or expanded into more – than the recommended 4 sessions).  Initially, they were developed in response to needs expressed by correctional re-entry programs for a set of focused but abbreviated counseling guides.  Thus, the set of brief Targeted Interventions for Corrections will be available also as specialized manuals, adapted in language and illustrated for offenders in correctional settings.

All TCU Manuals rely on a cognitive-based visual representation strategy for counseling – that is, “node-link mapping” (Dansereau, Joe, & Simpson, 1993; Dansereau, Dees, & Simpson, 1994) – shown to enhance client communication, planning, and decision-making skills.  As a clinical technique, mapping incorporates visual tools (e.g., guide maps, free-form maps, information maps) that clients and counselors use to more readily identify and address the variety of concepts covered during treatment.  Guides for counselor applications of mapping are listed below, which typically serve as reference materials for counselor training events.  Following the mapping guides, there are four groups of intervention manuals listed – treatment induction, engagement, early recovery, and retention/re-entry. 

Finally, the last section includes organizational interventions developed as guides to help improve organizational functioning, especially in relation to program readiness for innovation training and adoption (see DATAR and Drugs in the Workplace projects).

Mapping Guides: A Counseling Strategy Using Visual Representation
Mapping is a visual representation counseling strategy for improving communication and decision-making that can enhance any therapeutic or psycho-educational exercise, either in group or individual settings.  Evidence shows it significantly improves treatment engagement and client progress indicators, and helps compensate for a variety of cognitive and social deficits common among drug users in treatment (Dansereau & Dees, 2002; Czuchry & Dansereau, 2003).

Mapping New Roads to Recovery: Cognitive Enhancements to Counseling
(Dansereau, Dees, Chatham, Boatler, & Simpson, 1993; 131 pages) is a comprehensive self-paced training manual designed for substance abuse counselors and case workers interested in node-link mapping, a visual representation technique for helping clients improve problem-solving and decision-making skills.

TCU Guide Maps:  A Resource for Counselors  
(Dees & Dansereau, 2000; 132 pages) is designed to show how "guide maps" serve to enhance counseling sessions in substance abuse treatment.  Although the examples used are based on experiences with large-group residential treatment in a criminal justice facility, the maps are appropriate both for group and individual counseling in other settings.

Mapping Your Steps:  "Twelve Step" Guide Maps   
(Sia, Dansereau, & Dees, 2002; 138 pages; also available in Spanish)  provides mapping templates for helping clients work their 12-step program and contemplate deeper, personal relevance of each step.  The manual also includes maps to explore popular AA slogans, the Twelve Traditions, and the Serenity Prayer.

Client motivation to change, readiness for treatment, and treatment orientation/planning are crucial elements of the induction phase; they are related directly to the level of client engagement during the early months of treatment (Simpson & Joe, 2004).

Getting Motivated to Change
(Bartholomew, Dansereau, & Simpson, 2006; 63 pages) is a collection of materials for leading 4 counseling sessions that address motivation and readiness for change.

Mapping Your Treatment Plan:  A Collaborative Approach  
(Bartholomew, Dansereau, & Simpson, 2007; 54 pages) is a mapping-focused guide for working with clients to establish meaningful and useful treatment goals.

Preparation for Change:  The Tower of Strengths and The Weekly Planner  
(Sia, Czuchry, Dansereau, & Blankenship, 1998; 76 pages) introduces two card-sorting activities that counselors can use with their clients to help them enrich self-esteem, maintain motivation (The Tower of Strengths), and remember personal goals through quotes (The Weekly Planner).  Both activities are used early in treatment to enhance motivation and encourage openness to change.
 
Downward Spiral:  The game you really don't want to play (Czuchry, Sia, Dansereau, & Blankenship, 1998; 304 pages) is a board game with an innovative approach to motivating clients and opening up discussions about the consequences of addiction on themselves and their families.  Downward Spiral uses realistic scenarios, factual information, and inspirational quotes to stimulate client thinking about common consequences of substance abuse.  The objective of the game is to stay alive, preferably without losing all social and financial resources.  The task becomes more challenging the longer the drug-using player stays in the game. 

Treatment engagement is the foundation for achieving therapeutic improvements in client psychosocial functioning.  “Engagement” means regular attendance, cognitive re-focusing on treatment issues, and developing rapport and a trusting relationship with counselors (Simpson & Joe, 2004).

Contingency Management Strategies and Ideas
(Bartholomew, Rowan-Szal, & Simpson, 2006; 31 pages) is a planning guide for using rewards and star charts to reinforce client goal setting, session attendance (i.e., regular and on-time), and participation in treatment settings.

Understanding and Reducing Angry Feelings  
(Bartholomew & Simpson, 2005; 42 pages) is a collection of materials for leading 4 counseling sessions that encourage new ways of thinking about and responding to anger.

Unlock Your Thinking, Open Your Mind  
(Bartholomew & Simpson, 2005; 55 pages) is a collection of materials for leading 4 counseling sessions that address unhealthy or destructive thinking patterns that can hamper behavior change.

Mapping Your Journey: A Treatment Guidebook
(Dansereau & Simpson, 2005; 59 pages) is a collection of materials and visual guides for systematically exploring needs and planning treatment, improving communication, and reviewing treatment progress.

Progress in making psychosocial, cognitive, and behavioral changes – including learning life and social skills as well as basic “relapse prevention” concepts – is needed to initiate the recovery process.  It also is related to achieving longer retention in treatment (Simpson & Joe, 2004).

Ideas for Better Communication   
(Bartholomew & Simpson, 2005; 39 pages) is a collection of materials for leading 4 counseling sessions on ways to improve relationships through communication.

Building Social Networks   
(Bartholomew & Simpson, 2005; 36 pages)  is a collection of materials for leading 4 counseling sessions on ways to build and strengthen social support in recovery.

Time Out! For Me: An Assertiveness/Sexuality Workshop for Women  
(Bartholomew, Chatham, & Simpson)1994; 210 pages) provides substance abuse counselors or case workers with a curriculum for leading a 6-session workshop for women in their treatment programs.

Time Out! For Men: A Communication Skills and Sexuality Workshop for Men  
(Bartholomew & Simpson, 1996; 230 pages) is a companion piece to the Time Out! For Me curriculum for women. It provides substance abuse counselors or case workers with guidelines for leading an 8-session workshop for men that focuses on improving their intimate relationships.

Retention in treatment increases as recovery-oriented “thinking and acting” is stabilized and emphasis is given to community re-entry issues, especially for improving family relationships and support systems.  Longer retention is related to better client outcomes following discharge (Simpson & Joe, 2004).

Partners in Parenting
(Bartholomew, D. Knight, Chatham, & Simpson, 2000; 306 pages) contains materials for an 8-session structured workshop in which participants practice parenting strategies and discuss their experiences with others.  

Straight Ahead: Transition Skills for Recovery  
(Bartholomew, Simpson, & Chatham, 1993; 193 pages) provides substance abuse treatment professionals with a step-by-step curriculum for leading a 10-session workshop designed to reinforce key relapse prevention and related recovery concepts.

Common Sense Ideas for HIV Prevention and Sexual Health
(Bartholomew & Simpson, 2005; 40 pages) is a collection of materials for leading 4 counseling sessions that address the knowledge and skills to reduce HIV and other STD risks.  

Approaches to HIV/AIDS Education in Drug Treatment
(Bartholomew & Simpson, 2002; 200 pages) is an easy-to-follow manual designed to assist counselors in leading educational groups on HIV/AIDS and related risks.  The manual includes a 4-session core curriculum that addresses HIV transmission, safer sex and injection practices, HIV testing, and personal risk reduction.

Manuals for Organizational Interventions    
More attention has been given in recent years to the needs and functioning of organizations as they relate to the collective behaviors of staff members, especially in terms of agency “effectiveness” and efforts to implement innovations through team building.

Mapping Organizational Change: A Guidebook on Program Needs
(Dansereau & Simpson, 2006; 20 pages) is a collection of mapping tools that guide discussions among organizational leaders and key staff to systemize the communication, goal setting, and change process.     

Team Awareness: Small Business  (4-hour Edition)
Training for Workplace Substance Abuse Prevention   
(Small Business Wellness Initiative, SBWI, 2004; 4-hour training package) is a 4-hour team-based training program that integrates team building exercises with peer referral and stress management skills.  Understanding the time constraints of small businesses, the training was modified from the original 8-hour program.  It is designed specifically to increase the awareness of behavioral health as a group concern rather than an individual burden.

Team Awareness: Drugs in the Workplace  (8-hour Edition)
Training for Workplace Substance Abuse Prevention  
(Bennett, Bartholomew, Reynolds, & Lehman, 2002; 8-hour training package from the Drugs in the Workplace Project) is an 8-hour workplace training program that addresses behavioral risks associated with substance abuse among employees, their coworkers and, indirectly, their families.  This program has been shown to increase employee help-seeking for and supervisor responsiveness to troubled workers, enhance the work climate, and reduce problem drinking.  

Manuals Section
Contents

Background and Overview

Mapping Guides: A Cognitive Strategy Using Visual Representation

Mapping New Roads to Recovery: Cognitive Enhancements to Counseling

TCU Guide Maps:  A Resource for Counselors

Mapping Your Steps: "Twelve Step" Guide Maps

Manuals for Motivation and Induction into Treatment

Getting Motivated to Change

Mapping Your Treatment Plan

Preparation for Change: Tower of Strengths and the Weekly Planner

Downward Spiral: The game you really don't want to play

Manuals for Improving Engagement in Treatment

Contingency Management Strategies and Ideas

Understanding and Reducing Angry Feelings

Unlock Your Thinking, Open Your Mind

Mapping the Journey: A Treatment Guidebook

Manuals for Improving Early Recovery in Treatment

Ideas for Better Communication

Building Social Networks

Time Out! For Me:  An Assertiveness and Sexuality Workshop for Women

Time Out! For Men: A Communication Skills and Sexuality Workshop for Men

Manuals for Improving Retention and Re-entry

Partners in Parenting

Straight Ahead: Transition Skills for Recovery

Common Sense Ideas on HIV Prevention and Sexual Health

Approaches to HIV/AIDS Education in Drug Treatment

Manuals for Organizational Interventions

Mapping Organizational Change: A Guidebook on Program Needs

Team Awareness, Small Business 4-hour Edition: Training for Workplace Substance Abuse Prevention

Team Awareness, Drugs in the Workplace 8-hour Edition:  Training for Workplace Substance Abuse Prevention

Home | Manuals | Forms | Evidence |
Publications | Newsletters | Presentations |
Staff | Projects | About IBR |
What's New | Other Links | Downloads
Search | Contents | Site Map |

Copyright and Terms of Use
Privacy Policy