Vocational Services in Nida-Funded Drug Treatment Programs

Abstract

In the past while most drug treatment programs have considered client employment to be an indicator of successful treatment, a review of previous studies indicates few have been able to provide the range of services needed to prepare ex-addicts for employment and to help them secure jobs. Goldenberg (1972) reported that although the drug program personnel, employers and treatment clients surveyed tended to feel that a job was important in rehabilitation, programs were not providing adequate services. Sells (1974) reported less than one of every 20 clients admitted to programs in the first two years of the Drug Abuse Reporting Program (DARP) participated in vocational training outside the programs. The System Sciences, Inc. (1973) evaluation of 24 therapeutic communities reported that only about 15 minutes a day were involved with vocational training and less than 20 minutes a day with jobs outside the program. Burt and Pines (1976) found that only 11 percent of clients in one Washington program participated in job training, referral, placement counseling, or vocational rehabilitation counseling. Less than one in 20 clients in a New York program found vocational rehabilitation or job counseling the most helpful activity (Burt and Glynn, 1976). Although both treatment program staff and clients in one major study (Mandell, Goldschmidt and Grover, 1973) agreed that jobs were important objectives of treatment, less than an hour a week was devoted to finding jobs for clients or preparing clients for employment. From these studies, it is clear that vocational and employment services were not a major element of most treatment programs in the early 1970s.