A counseling internship at Addictions, Health and Community Services, Western with an internship project on how to integrate cocaine intervention strategies into Western's existing addictions services program

摘要

This report is organized into two parts and describes an internship comprised of two major components. The information in Part I discusses a counseling placement component and Part II presents a program development component. The internship was completed during the period of June to July 1998 at Addictions, Health and Community Services, Western. Western is an addiction treatment center and is located in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada. Part I gives a rationale for the internship, a description of the placement setting, information on site supervision and a discussion of the internship objectives. Part II presents the program development component of the internship. A review of related literature on cocaine addiction was done to provide current research on cocaine treatment interventions. -- The intern's data was gathered from two sources. First, a literature review was carried out to evaluate Western's existing addictions programs. An analysis of selected documents related to this project revealed the number of cocaine abusers arriving at Western. Western's intervention program is based on a biopsychosocial approach, and the review of the related literature indicated an absence of research on the neuro-behavioral approach in the treatment of cocaine abusers. -- The addiction programs at Western were evaluated in order to ascertain both the need for a cocaine treatment program at Western and any factors that would need to be addressed to ensure new program compatibility. New program compatibility had to be maintained to ensure successful integration with or addition to Western's existing addictions programming. Second, pre and post intervention questionnaires were given to Western's clientele and staff in order to gauge clients' perceptions of, and to receive input from Western's treatment team on both the design and compatibility of a cocaine treatment program for Western. -- The findings informed the intern's development and implementation of a cocaine treatment program for Western. As a result of this internship project, a program was developed for Western's future program planning.