New Guide Identifies Key Elements for Effective Drug Treatment in the Juvenile Justice System, Profiles Effective Programs

Each year more than two million youth are charged with delinquency offenses. An estimated three in four of them have serious problems with drugs or alcohol, or both. Despite that fact, very few resources are dedicated to drug treatment in our nation's juvenile justice systems.

A new guide, published by the nonprofit research institute Drug Strategies, examines this critical gap in treatment, identifies the key elements of an effective treatment program and profiles 12 programs that have successfully incorporated some of these elements.

This first-ever and much-needed guide, Bridging the Gap: A Guide to Drug Treatment in the Juvenile Justice System brings together current research and clinical practice in the area of adolescent drug treatment and review of the juvenile justice system to provide clear guidance for improving the way these systems handle adolescents with substance abuse problems.

Bridging the Gap was developed with guidance from an advisory panel of nationally-recognized experts, including leading academics, clinical researchers, treatment providers and juvenile justice experts. The guide builds on Drug Strategies' 2004 guide, Treating Teens: A Guide to Adolescent Drug Programs, the first-ever comprehensive guide to adolescent drug treatment programs.

Bridging the Gap provides a framework for understanding what has been learned about effective drug treatment for adolescents in the juvenile justice system. It takes into account the realities of the juvenile justice system, which involves many different agencies, each with its own mission, philosophy and concerns. In addition, it notes that there are 51 different juvenile court systems and no common standards of practice of accountability nationwide.

The guide provides a comprehensive explanation of the eleven key elements of effective drug treatment in the juvenile justice system and outlines how individual programs have incorporated those elements. The profiles include information on program results and the challenges of incorporating these key elements into the complex juvenile justice system.

"Adolescents are a particular challenge both for the justice system and for drug treatment providers," said Mathea Falco, President of Drug Strategies.

"Most young people in the juvenile system have serious problems with drugs and alcohol. At that point, we have not only an opportunity, but a responsibility to provide them with the treatment they desperately need. Bridging the Gap offers important guidance for improving our juvenile justice system's approach to substance abuse that is based on research and practice."

According to Bridging the Gap, the eleven elements that are crucial to effective drug treatment in the juvenile justice system are:

1. Systems Integration that includes rigorous self-analysis, cross-system accountability and effective leadership to overcome the fragmentation that too often exists between corrections staff and treatment providers, and the myriad agencies and service organizations that must work together to ensure that juveniles with substance abuse problems get the treatment and follow-up that they need.

2. Assessment and treatment matching that includes a thorough psychiatric and medical examination to identify underlying conditions related to substance abuse, uses standard, nationally recognized screening instruments, and matches young people to the appropriate interventions.

3. A comprehensive, integrated treatment approach and dynamic case management that includes the full range of necessary health services, addresses any high risk behaviors and attitudes, accounts for developmental issues, addresses the variety of social systems that shape adolescents' daily lives, encourages growth and includes continuing care after the adolescent leaves the program or juvenile facility.

4. Qualified staff who are trained to recognize psychiatric problems and understand adolescent development. Staff should have the professional training and credentials necessary to treat and work with youth, and be capable of working effectively within the current realities of the juvenile justice system.

5. A developmentally appropriate program that addresses the crucial differences between adolescents and adults, including a propensity for engaging in risky behaviors with little regard for the consequences and a resistance to seeking treatment on their own.

6. Family involvement in treatment to engage parents or a caregiver in the treatment process to help ensure that the teenager stays in treatment and continues to improve after the formal treatment program has ended.

7. A way to engage and retain teens in treatment, for instance, by encouraging them to develop a personal commitment and plan for recovery and create long-term goals. Counselors also need to develop a climate of trust, confidence and acceptance with the teen. Staying in treatment is the single most important factor in recovery.

8. Qualified staff who have training and experience in diverse areas, such as adolescent development, delinquency, depression, anxiety or attention deficit disorder. A low staff to client ratio can also improve treatment outcomes.

9. Staff with gender and cultural competence who implement a program that includes gender specific services, and who understand and can navigate cultural differences.

10. A process of continuing care that includes relapse prevention training, follow-up plans, referrals to community resources and periodic check-ups after completing treatment to help teens avoid recidivism.

11. A way to measure treatment outcomes to ensure the program's effectiveness. Formal evaluations are expensive, require a high level of research expertise and, in the juvenile justice system, can be quite complicated. In the absence of such evaluations, programs can still collect a range of information that will help determine how they are performing and whether they are achieving their goals. For instance, they should routinely measure clients' programs and review their retention rates.

Programs profiled are: Travis County Juvenile Justice Integrated Network in Austin, Texas; Tampa Juvenile Assessment Center in Tampa, Florida; King County Juvenile Treatment Court in Seattle, Washington; Adolescent Portable Therapy in New York, New York; Thunder Road Adolescent Treatment Center in Oakland, California; Chestnut Health Systems in Bloomington, Illinois; Multidimensional Family Therapy in Miami, Florida; Multisystemic Therapy in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina; Phoenix Academy of Los Angeles; and La Bodega de la Familia in New York, New York.

Bridging the Gap: A Guide to Drug Treatment in the Juvenile Justice System can be ordered online.

Drug Strategies, a non-profit research institute, promotes more effective approaches to the nation's drug problems and supports initiatives to reduce the demand for drugs through prevention, education, treatment and law enforcement.