Clark County Therapeutic Courts Peer-to-Peer Recovery Mentoring

Status: current


Purpose: The REACH Too program, situated with the nonprofit Consumer Voices are Born, offers addiction recovery peer mentoring services to adults engaged with a therapeutic drug court in Clark County, Washington. In August 2013, REACH Too received a grant for peer-to-peer recovery support services through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). With this grant, REACH Too expanded its services to incorporate all four of Clark County’s therapeutic courts–including Adult Drug Court (felony), Family Treatment Court, Substance Abuse Court (misdemeanor), and Veteran’s Court–and contracted with NPC Research to conduct a process and outcome evaluation of its program.

Project Design: NPC is conducting a process evaluation to better understand the program’s implementation and the elements involved in its successful expansion. Study activities will include, for example, focus groups with peer mentors and program participants, interviews with key stakeholders, and ongoing archival analysis of program data. NPC will also perform an outcome evaluation, investigation the impact of REACH Too services participants’ progress through the therapeutic court programs and their sustained recovery. Specifically, a quasi-experimental design will be employed, comparing court participants who engaged with a REACH Too peer mentor and court participants who did not engage with a peer mentor, in terms of their progress through and successful completion of the therapeutic court program. In addition, the study will examine REACH Too participants’ change over time in terms of their recovery and their functioning across several life domains.

Funding Source: Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Start Date: August 2013

Project Team

Principal Investigator and Project Director

Anna Malsch, Ph.D.

Research Analyst

Timothy Ho, Ph.D.

Project Staff

Jennifer Aborn, B.S.