Conflict Resolution

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I proposal is to develop Conflict Resolution for Recovery and Relapse Prevention, a 12-session, multimedia psychoeducational curriculum for adult substance abusers, facilitated by counselors and other treatment professionals in diverse treatment settings. The product's overarching goal is to help reduce relapse and sustain recovery by improving client conflict resolution knowledge, attitudes, and skills. When both Phase I and Phase II are completed, Conflict Resolution will be a bundled product consisting of the following interrelated components: 1) A facilitator's guide, which will feature talking points, exercises, and role plays, as well as tips for interacting with groups and individual/family/couple clients around substance abuse conflict resolution issues, visual aids, and evaluation forms; 2) A participant workbook that reiterates key concepts, provides visuals that reinforce content, and includes homework assignments and personal exercise sheets, and 3) A DVD with modules for both counselors and clients, including didactic and interactive elements. The goals of the conflict resolution package are to: 1) Serve as a research-based, empirically tested, psychoeducational curriculum that is effective and appropriate for use with diverse populations of adult substance abusers; 2) Provide treatment and training materials for professionals that are easy to use and integrate into existing community residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment facilities; 3) Provide an effective, cost-efficient, feasible model for improving client conflict resolution capacities; and 4) Offer an innovative program, based on concepts adapted from effective use in other disciplines/environments and making use of today's technology, to enhance relapse-prevention options. To accomplish these goals, the specific aims for the Phase I period are to: 1) Conduct a focus group with drug abuse treatment professionals; 2) Research and develop the content for the facilitator's guide and participant workbook; 3) Conduct a review of the developed content with an expert Advisory Panel; 4) Develop an outline for an accompanying DVD, to be produced in Phase II; and 5) Conduct a feasibility study of the materials with professional stakeholders. The project has the potential to impact public health by helping drug abuse clients build healthy relationships through conflict resolution principles. These healthy relationships will serve to sustain recovery and prevent relapse.