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Orbis has developed an innovative treatment model for substance abuse treatment in community settings where there is continuous intake of new clients. A cognitive behavioral approach helps prepare offenders to develop and practice a set of individualized skills for coping with substance abuse problems following release. Community-focused, the program helps offenders identify community resources that will link them to the community and help gain proficiency in a marital, parenting, employment and other contexts that challenge their coping resources.
Transitions is suitable for residential treatment programs as well as community supervision settings. For example, the intervention could be used in probation or parole settings where there is frequent reporting and is ideal for day reporting programs and a variety of re-entry settings. The program is intended to provide intensive exposure for clients that are judged to be at high risk of failure in the community. While the program was originally designed as a community substance abuse treatment model for offenders who received treatment while incarcerated, the model can be adapted for intervention with more general populations of offenders who do not suffer from substance abuse problems.
A critical feature of this community-based program is that it operates on a continuous entry model so that all participants are not required to begin and complete the program at the same time. This feature makes for practical implementation in settings where there is frequent intake of new clients. The modularized program focuses on a variety of challenge areas that clients must address in order to be successful in the community:
Using cognitive behavioral skill practice, participants learn to apply skills to the problems and stresses that emerge as they attempt to live crime-fee lives. Skill practice and rehearsal is used in group settings based on problem scenarios that draw from the various challenge or need areas listed above. In addition, participants monitor their own real-life use of the skills as they face various challenges in their life in the community. The program relies heavily on processing of life experience in the group setting as offenders adjust to the demands of re-entry. A proportion of the content is concerned with providing didactic treatment of a number of life skills areas (including parenting, budgeting, accessing community services, job search, etc.). After learning the skills and practicing within the safe setting of the group, participants receive homework assignments involving application of the skills in real life.
Orbis has developed an innovative treatment model for substance abuse treatment in community settings where there is continuous intake of new clients.
