ABSTRACT
This article describes a Web-based therapeutic workplace intervention designed to promote heroin and cocaine abstinence and train and employ participants as data entry operators. Patients are paid to participate in training and then to perform data entry jobs in a therapeutic workplace business. Salary is linked to abstinence by requiring patients to provide drug-free urine samples to gain access to the workplace. Prior data show that a prototype of the intervention could promote drug abstinence. Preliminary data on the Web-based intervention suggest that it should be able to teach adults with histories of chronic unemployment and drug addiction to become skilled data entry operators in about 3 to 6 months. Early experience in the business provides preliminary evidence that it might become financially successful. The therapeutic workplace intervention may serve as an effective and practical long-term treatment for chronic unemployment and heroin and cocaine addiction.
Subject(s)
Behavior Therapy , Cocaine-Related Disorders/rehabilitation , Employment, Supported , Heroin Dependence/rehabilitation , Internet , Occupational Health Services , Rehabilitation, Vocational , Substance Abuse, Intravenous/rehabilitation , Therapy, Computer-Assisted , Unemployment/psychology , Adult , Baltimore , Cocaine-Related Disorders/psychology , Computer User Training/economics , Cost-Benefit Analysis , Drug Evaluation, Preclinical , Electronic Data Processing/economics , Heroin Dependence/psychology , Humans , Long-Term Care , Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care , Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic , Salaries and Fringe Benefits , Substance Abuse, Intravenous/psychology , Token EconomyABSTRACT
The Therapeutic Workplace is an employment-based treatment for chronic drug misuse and unemployment. As a part of this intervention, participants are taught skills to perform data entry jobs and are paid based on attendance and productivity. In this study, computerized typing and keypad training programs were evaluated in recently detoxified HIV-positive injection drug users (n = 32) enrolled in the Therapeutic Workplace treatment program between October 2000 and September 2001. Results show that trainees can be taught fundamental typing and keypad skills in an average of 51.48 and 1.73h of training, respectively, administered over 17.91 and 12.59 weeks, respectively. Overall, the results demonstrate that adults with long histories of chronic unemployment and drug addiction can reliably acquire typing and keypad skills and do so over relatively short periods of time.
Subject(s)
Employment , Substance Abuse, Intravenous/rehabilitation , User-Computer Interface , Vocational Guidance , Adult , Computer Peripherals , Female , HIV Infections , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Task Performance and Analysis , WorkplaceABSTRACT
The Therapeutic Workplace is an effective drug abuse treatment that integrates abstinence reinforcement into a work setting by using a salary that drug abusers earn for work. Drug abuse patients are trained and hired to become data entry operators in a Therapeutic Workplace business. Despite the opportunity to earn a high wage, participants frequently arrive at work late and fail to work complete shifts. In the present study, a contingency management intervention to promote consistent and reliable attendance was evaluated in 4 participants. Participants were not allowed to work on days that they arrived late, and their pay was temporarily reduced each time they arrived late at work or failed to complete a work shift. A within-subject reversal design showed that the intervention increased the frequency with which participants arrived at work on time and completed work shifts.
