NRI Community Services - Caring for Community

24/7 Emergency Line: 235-7120
Intake Line: 235-7121
Main Line: 235-7000

Contact Us

Accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and the United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA) and is a member of the Fund for Community Progress

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Advancing Recovery Partnership

February 2007

NRICS Participates in a National Effort to Improve the Quality of Addiction Treatment

NRI Community Services, as the lead agency, and three partnering organizations have the distinctive opportunity to guide addiction treatment programming in the twenty-second century. As part of a national initiative, and one of only six state department and non-profit agency partnerships chosen across the country, NRICS has been selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to receive funding to improve the quality of alcohol and other drug addiction treatment. The RI project is part of the RWJF’s Advancing Recovery: State/Provider Partnerships for Quality Addiction Care.

NRICS, in partnership with Family Resources Community Action (FRCA), Tri-Hab – a Division of Gateway Healthcare, and the Department of Mental Health, Retardation & Hospitals/Division of Behavioral Healthcare, will participate in a two year system change process. In addition, RICARES is working closely with the group to ensure that the client perspective is represented. The project will identify and remove barriers that prevent the implementation of “evidence based” clinical practices in substance abuse treatment agencies.

Several federal and private surveys have indicated that most states do not use research-based practices in addiction treatment, a detriment to treatment. Previous demonstrations supported by the RWJF and the National Center for Substance Abuse Treatment suggest that barriers to adopting proven practices are associated with administrative, regulatory and financing systems. By making changes at both the service provider and state agency levels, these barriers can be reduced or removed.

The goal of the Rhode Island Advancing Recovery Grant is to successfully adopt, implement and sustain two evidence-based practices within each of the three provider agencies, and to assist in the adoption of these practices on a statewide basis. The two evidence-based practices selected by the partnership for this effort are the use of continuing care that would provide supportive services after discharge from treatment, and the use of medications to aid in the recovery of substance addiction and/or co-occurring diagnoses.

The partnership selected the continuing care evidence-based practice because research demonstrates that addiction is a chronic condition which is characterized by the potential for lapses and relapses. The current RI substance abuse treatment system is operating as an acute care model, and is short-term in nature. It is critical that this system be re-designed to assist clients in maintaining their recovery through the longer term support of continuing care services. This approach emerges out of a chronic care disease management approach that has worked effectively for many years in treating persons with mental illness and chronic medical conditions.

The use of medications to assist in addiction recovery was the second evidence-based practice selected because research and science have demonstrated that there is a biological component involved in both the addiction and recovery processes, that alcohol and other drug use seriously affects brain chemistry, and research has increasingly demonstrated the effectiveness of medications in the treatment of addiction disorders.

The RI Partnership has received $180,000 a year for two years through this grant award. This funding will support the activities and process of making changes at both the state and the service provider levels to implement these proven addiction treatment practices. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has been the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans for over 30 years.