Client participation in health service programs is a concept that has gained greater acceptance with funding sources, health organizations, health professionals and clients in the last decade. Unfortunately in the field of substance abuse there has been a reluctance and at times resistance to the active participation of clients in all aspects of services. This session describes the main findings from the evaluation of Always Working toward Advancing Recovery Environments (AWARE) Program, a statewide program whose mission is to empower the recovery community to contribute to and actively participate in public dialogue about alcohol and other drug services. This program is based on the principles of community participation, community partnership, and community empowerment through self-advocacy. The main objectives of AWARE are to develop a community network to voice the unique perspectives of recovering persons, increase participant knowledge and participation in the design, implementation and evaluation of their own substance abuse treatment, and to have current participants of alcohol/drug programs make policy recommendation directly to local/state government leaders. This presentation will particularly focus on the institutional challenges of implementing a client participation model in substance abuse treatment services, describe key strategies to overcome such institutional challenges, and provide insights on the development of a client participation model specific to substance abuse services.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: 1) describe the main principles of client participation models, 2)identify 4 barriers in implementing a client participation/empowerment approach in the provision of substance abuse treatment, 3)describe the development of a client empowerment model specific to substance abuse treatment.
Keywords: Advocacy, Policy/Policy Development
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.