Drug Bulletin

In January, 2009, two California Narconon^® drug rehabilitation centers reported to Narconon International, administrative headquarters of the worldwide network, that their most recent one-year drug-free success rates were 76.7% and 80% of graduates living stably drug-free. Another recent tabulation by Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma has paralleled this with a 75.4% drug-free one year report. The average of the three is 77.5%.

Needless to say, this is exceptional. The 1998 SAMHSA Services Research Outcomes Study (SROS) national survey¹ of 1,799 drug rehab clients in 99 drug treatment centers across the United States reported an average 5-year post-program 21% reduction in use of any illicit drug and 14% reduction in use of alcohol. There was no report of an average achievement of “drug-free” – using no drugs at all.

What might be considered remarkable is that these “high” results are the “norm” for Narconon. Over its several decade history, tabulations of drug-free results by Narconon staff as well as by external observers or tabulators have hovered consistently around 75%.

It has been standard practice for specially-trained Narconon center staff to follow up program graduates both to see how they are meeting their discharge program objectives (returning to work, restoring family relations, etc.) as well as to monitor their drug-free status.

Following is Northern California Narconon Vista Bay’s graph of graduates reporting drug-free from one month post-graduation up to one year later.

Although alcohol is commonly recognized also to be a drug, it is not unusual to report “drug free” and “drug and alcohol free” separately. In Vista Bay’s example, there are some graduates who began to consume alcohol (but not other drugs), reducing the drug and alcohol free total to 71% – still in the high range for rehabs.

For the same time period, Southern California Narconon Newport Beach presented the following chart of drug-free living.

This center also charted the extensive staff work done to recover to the Narconon program those graduates who had reverted to drugs within their first year.

The figures above are based on a large number of graduates – 213 out of 275 who had been monitored a full year after graduation. Of the 275 graduates, only 30 (10.8%) were known to have relapsed and an additional 29 (10.5%) were not locatable by the centers.

The majority of the Narconon program is life skills training to develop and/or improve an addict’s abilities to make and practice wiser and more ethical choices. These courses also teach how to change life conditions for the better. Therefore, it has long been Narconon staff policy to recover students who relapse post-program to help them discover “what they missed” in their earlier studies, to clear up any misunderstandings, disagreements, or inability to apply the data. The idea is that someone who’s got the data can live an ethical, drug-free life – assuming, of course, that the person desires this objective.

The fundamental premise of the Narconon program model is that a person, whether addicted to alcohol and other drugs or not, is responsible for his own condition and that he can and will improve his life to the degree he takes personal responsibility – and then does something about it. Of course, the doing something about it is the magic.

But what is missing from the Narconon drug rehabilitation formula is the mantra increasingly heard around the world that addiction is a “relapsing disease.” At Narconon addiction is treated as the result of missing abilities, specifically, not knowing or not using those abilities one must have and practice to live without the crutch (or burden) of drugs and alcohol. Certainly, some Narconon graduates relapse. Rather than consider this normal and to be expected, Narconon staff attempt to recover the “student” (as they call the Narconon client) back to the program to get it right. It’s a very positive atmosphere, but not stress free. Responsibility does not come easily, as maturity has instructed us all.

CARF Review of Narconon Routine Outcome Monitoring

The Narconon policy of “routine monitoring” of its graduates was reviewed by CARF² in 2005 at Narconon Arrowhead, the network’s international training center (CARF accredited for 15 years). The 2005 CARF survey of Narconon Arrowhead operations reported that “the organization does an excellent job in tracking the progress of persons served following discharge and uses the data in refining its program.”

Narconon Arrowhead’s graph of one-year drug free is:

With over 200-bed capacity, Narconon Arrowhead has two full-time staff posted to do outcome monitoring. They maintain weekly contact for three months and then monthly contact for two years to assist with reintegration into the community.

Notes:

1. DHHS Publication No (SMA) 98-3177, September, 1998.
2. Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission

Tags: alcohol, drug-free, drugs, narconon, outcome, rates, rehabilitation, results

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Rehabilitation Outcomes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.