Preferred Family Healthcare Inc., through Technology Assisted Care grant provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Preferred Family Healthcare, Inc. (PFH) offers enhanced and expanded substance abuse treatment services to 18-24 year olds in central Missouri through the Portal II program. This program provides virtual counseling services to individuals in outpatient treatment with barriers to those unable to attend conventional classes. Portal II intends to demonstrate that the use of technology results in longer periods of connection with consumers, lower drop-out rates, higher participation levels and greater consumer satisfaction. Success in these factors, in turn, will result in more successful outcomes on traditional measures of treatment effectiveness.
IPP was contracted by PFH to conduct external evaluation of the traditional measures of treatment effectives, specifically the decline in substance use in the past 30 days, and the number of relapses. To measure these outcomes, the evaluation includes a simple pre-post design. Structured interviews are conducted with participants in Portal II when they enroll in the program, six months after their enrollment date and at the time of their discharge from the program. Participant satisfaction surveys are also completed at these time points. Virtual substance abuse treatment is cutting edge and IPP is excited to see program success.