The research profile this month has already been nominated for the Distinguished Master's Thesis Award. Bruce K. Barnard, of Monticello, IL serves as Associate Director for Champaign and Ford Counties at Prairie Center Health Systems in Champaign. He was a graduate student in Technology, with a study focus on Training and Development.

Bruce completed his thesis entitled “Implications of Personal Recovery History for Training and Development of Addiction Treatment Workers” in Spring 2004. For the research work, he surveyed 94 workers at three community-based addiction treatment agencies in the region. Bruce uses the literature to outline the challenges faced by treatment agencies and incorporates his research data to offer a number of recommendations for training, organizational development, and future research.

"This process was very valuable in preparing me to use my new learning in my day to day professional challenges."

"Overall, I found the thesis project very satisfying. It allowed me to explore an area of my field while incorporating my new learning from the MsT program. This process was very valuable in preparing me to use my new learning in my day to day professional challenges. The faculty (Dr. Woodley and Dr. Boldrey) were very helpful and supportive. The addition of Dr. Fraker from Counseling and Student Development brought a "subject matter" expert to the team and allowed me to really do my research work in areas where technology and addictions treatment merge. Dr. Fraker was also able to understand my substance abuse treatment lingo so Dr. Boldrey and Dr. Woodley could be excused from mandatory language training. Seriously, the recommendations have already proven helpful in managing our agencies training and development efforts. An Intern in the Counseling and Student Development program is taking a part of my data on counselor perceptions and comparing it to new data on client perceptions." - Bruce K. Barnard

Implications of Personal Recovery History for Training and Development of
Addiction Treatment Workers - Abstract

Community-based substance abuse agencies are challenged to recruit, train, and develop workers from diverse backgrounds, including many who have a personal history of addiction and recovery. To be effective, agencies must be able to integrate knowledge and vision from both research-based interventions and personal recovery movements, which often appear to be in conflict.

The purpose of the study was to identify and compare professional competencies perceived as most important by addiction treatment workers with, and without, a personal recovery history. A survey was developed and administered to 94 workers in three community-based addiction treatment agencies. The study found broad support for professional competencies published by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center, National Curriculum Committee (1998). Worker support for competencies can be used to improve treatment effectiveness by implementing a competency-based model to guide training and development. The study found no significant differences in perceptions of competencies by workers with a personal recovery history and those without such history. Results indicate that factors such as workplace culture may be more powerful than recovery history in influencing worker perceptions. Properly prepared and trained addiction treatment workers can play a key role in society's efforts to minimize the detrimental effects of drug and alcohol abuse. Consequently, efforts to improve addiction treatment outcomes through staff training should simultaneously address organizational development issues.

Implications of the research for staff training are discussed including applying systems approaches, pharmacological interventions, and exploring the effects of public policy to improve worker competency. Recommendations for organizational development include the use of strength-based models to promote a learning organization that nurtures the therapeutic philosophy of workers. Suggestions for future research are also presented.