There is a definite need in the drug rehab industry to systematically and routinely monitor the results and efficacy of existing rehab programs, and ideally the capability of monitoring those results on a day-to-day basis. One of the key implications of the Routine Monitoring System, or ROM, developed at Narconon Arrowhead is the fact that it can be implemented and used by any drug rehabilitation center as a standardized tool for post-treatment follow-up. It can at the same time be used as a method of quality assurance.
According to a recently published paper in the international peer-reviewed Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment journal published by Libertas Academica, the ROM system developed and implemented at Narconon Arrowhead has the potential to help drug rehabilitation centers nationwide monitor the results of their treatment programs and thereby improve their treatment services.
The Routine Outcome Monitoring System
Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) is the product of a successful effort to develop and test a system by which key drug rehab treatment outcomes such as quality of life and abstinence from drug/alcohol can be measured. With this vital information, a rehab facility can ensure quality of delivery of its services and can act to alert the rehab center of those clients who may need to be called back for further rehabilitation services.
According to Dr. Richard Lennox, PhD, of Chestnut Health Systems, the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment has strongly recommended for a long time that drug rehab centers “monitor their post-treatment outcomes.” It is a key means by which a center can improve the quality and effectiveness of the program they deliver. He added that the most significant factor of the ROM system is its capability to be used by any rehabilitation center as a tool for regular and repeated follow-up of treatment, as well as a method of quality assurance. Dr. Lennox also said he hopes that the Narconon Routine Outcome Monitoring system provides other rehabs with a “simple, useful tool.”
There were two key challenging factors that researchers involved in this project needed to address on behalf of rehab centers desiring to monitor and track outcomes. One challenge being the fact that the training and administrative requirements involved in some outcome monitoring systems may be cost prohibitive for the provider, and the second challenge being the potential difficulty of successfully locating clients after they leave rehab.
Because some of the ROM procedures were already in place at Narconon Arrowhead where the project was conducted, the researchers were helped in their work by the existing higher than average number of hours of staff contact with clients, the detailed collection of data routinely done upon a client’s enrollment in the program, and an already existing system of quality control in place and functioning.
As a result, the researchers were able to develop a streamlined monitoring system with the capability to work in any setting. With core questions included in a short but comprehensive questionnaire designed for use by telephone, the survey is designed to elicit responses that can measure the outcomes essential to recovery. Some of those outcome essentials would include the person’s housing situation, the condition of his or her family and social relationships, the person’s job/employment status, and the person’s abstinence from drugs/alcohol.
The researchers on the project at Narconon Arrowhead made note of the fact that while the information collected as part of the Routine Outcome Monitoring is of primary importance in ensuring the consistent quality of the rehab program, it can also provide “valuable insight into the real-world results” that a rehabilitation program is achieving.
According to Gary Smith, Executive Director of Narconon Arrowhead, the Routine Outcome Monitoring system will help his center and its staff to produce routinely better outcomes, and on an ongoing basis. He also expressed his excitement that the work done at Narconon Arrowhead has the potential to help other rehabilitation programs also “working to help addicts reclaim their lives.”
For more information on the outcome monitoring procedure at the facility go to:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/outcome-monitoring/narconon-arrowhead/prweb11191714.htm
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/6/prweb10825051.htm