Therapeutic Communities Training
Training drug treatment professionals in best practice modalities builds capacity for treatment success and sustainable recovery. One of these models is the Therapeutic Community (TC), a long-term residential modality with significant rates of retention and treatment success.
The World Federation of Therapeutic Communities has published Standards and Goals for Therapeutic Communities that guide service delivery in their member federations across the globe.
Therapeutic Community
The Therapeutic Community (TC) is a treatment design directed primarily towards recovery from substance abuse through personal growth and requires abstinence from mood-altering substances, including prescription drugs used illegally.
The goal of a Therapeutic Community is to foster individual change and positive growth. This is accomplished by changing an individual’s life style through a community of concerned people working together to help themselves and each other.
Being part of something greater than oneself is an especially important factor in facilitating positive growth. TCs offer a holistic approach to treating the whole person and not just the addiction.
Clients in a Therapeutic Community (TC) are members, as in any family setting, rather than patients, as in an institution. These members play a significant role in managing the TC and acting as positive role models for others to emulate.
High expectations and high commitment from both Therapeutic Community members and staff support this positive change. Members gain insight into their problems through group and individual interaction. However, learning through experience – failing, succeeding and facing the consequences – is considered to be the most potent influence toward achieving lasting change.
Treatment Success
Therapeutic communities treat people with a range of substance abuse problems. Those treated often have other severe problems, such as multiple drug addictions, involvement with the criminal justice system, lack of positive social support, and mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and antisocial and other personality disorders).
For example, in DATOS, which tracked 2,345 admissions to residential TC treatment between 1991 and 1993, two-thirds of admissions had a criminal justice status (e.g., on probation, on parole, or pending trial) at admission, and about a third had been referred to treatment from the criminal justice system. Nearly a third of admissions were women, and nearly half were African American. Sixty percent had prior drug abuse treatment experience.
Reprinted from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Research Report Series – “Therapeutic Community”, July 22, 2008
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World Federation of Therapeutic Communities
Standards and Goals for Therapeutic Communities