Families As a Resource in Recovery From Drug Abuse in New York City, 1999-2001 (ICPSR 3490)

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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

This study examined La Bodega de la Familia, an experimental program for drug-abusing offenders and their families in New York City. The program was designed by planners at the Vera Institute of Justice and funded by New York City and New York State. It engaged substance abusers and their family members in family case management and other services as a supplement to probation, parole, or pretrial supervision. To recruit clients, La Bodega's staff developed relationships with the local police, parole and probation departments, tenant associations, the public housing authority, health providers, and other groups. Many families were referred to the program after contact with a government agency, and some heard about it from neighbors or friends. During the time of the study the program served a 56-block area on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The program was not designed as a drug treatment program but rather as a service for families who were trying to support a drug user through treatment and recovery. It was devoted to building support around the offender to improve the offender's chances of staying in mandated outpatient treatment. It also aimed to support the family for its own sake in order to address the intrafamilial damage caused by substance abuse, to improve the health and well-being of all family members, and to reduce their risk of becoming involved in drugs and crime. The study evaluated the outcomes of substance abusers and their families who participated in La Bodega's family case management by comparing them to a group of similar families that did not participate in the program.

Study Design View help for Study Design

Data were collected on 93 La Bodega participants and 88 comparison subjects. Both groups included drug users and their family members. Data were gathered through structured interviews conducted when subjects entered the study and six months later. The first round of interviews was conducted from January 1999 through August 2000, and the second round was conducted between August 1999 and January 2001. The interviews were based on a standardized instrument that assessed self-reported physical and mental health, family functioning, and social support. The questions forming the instrument were drawn from seven separate instruments. The seven instruments that made up this study's composite instrument were the Short Form (SF) 36 Health Survey, selected items from the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES), the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale, selected items from the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), the Family Environment Scale (FES) Form R, the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Social Support Survey, and the Special Programs of National Significance (SPNS) Innovative Models of HIV/AIDS Care Instrument (Modules 4A and 4B).

Sample View help for Sample

An on-site research assistant arranged to meet with families and enroll them in the study upon learning that they had participated in La Bodega's family case management. The major recruitment source for the comparison group was the New York State Division of Parole. More than three-fourths of the comparison group users and family members came from this source. A local methadone center and health clinic were each the source of 5 percent of the comparison group families, and 6 percent came from an alternative to incarceration program. In addition, some users and family members in the comparison group heard about the study from a friend or other organization and volunteered to be part of it, and 2 percent were recruited from the New York State Division of probation. Subjects were included in the final sample only if they completed two valid interviews.

Universe View help for Universe

Substance-abusing offenders and their family members who lived on the lower east side of Manhattan, New York City, between January 1999 and January 2001.

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Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables

Questions in the SF-36 Health Survey covered subjects' physical and mental health measured on eight subscales (physical functioning, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, mental health, and role-physical). The HHANES provided questions on use of health services and the incidence of chronic health problems, the CES-D provided questions related to the incidence and level of depression, the ASI provided questions on recent and lifetime drug use, drug treatment, criminal justice involvement, and quality of family and social relationships, the FES measured the social environment of families on ten subscales (cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, independence, achievement orientation, intellectual-cultural orientation, active-recreational orientation, moral-religious emphasis, organization, and control), the MOS Social Support Survey measured the type and level of social support on four subscales (tangible support, affectionate support, positive social interaction, emotional/informational support), the SPNS Module 4A asked about health and other services needed and received, and SPNS Module 4B asked about facilitators and barriers to receiving these services. The variables corresponding to the first and second interviews are the same, except that for the second interview the SPNS Module 4A questions were altered to ask about services needed and received since the first interview and whether La Bodega played a role in providing those services.

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Of the 295 individuals who completed valid first round interviews, 181 (61 percent) of them completed valid follow-up interviews.

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Scales included the Short Form 36 Health Survey, selected items from the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, the Addiction Severity Index, the Family Environment Scale Form R, the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey, and the Special Programs of National Significance Innovative Models of HIV/AIDS Care Instrument (Modules 4A and 4B).

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Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2005-01-11

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