Study protocol the Continuing Care Project: a randomised controlled trial of a continuing care telephone intervention following residential substance dependence treatment

Abstract

Background: A priority area in the field of substance dependence treatment is reducing the rates of relapse. Previous research has demonstrated that telephone delivered continuing care interventions are both clinically and cost effective when delivered as a component of outpatient treatment. This protocol describes a NSW Health funded study that assesses the effectiveness of delivering a telephone delivered continuing care intervention for people leaving residential substance treatment in Australia.

Continuing care following residential alcohol and other drug treatment: Continuing care worker perceptions

“…conducting baseline assessments, developing a continuing care plan with the individual), prior to participants leaving the residential program. Participants were randomised to either: (i) a 12‐session continuing care telephone intervention; (ii) a 4‐session continuing care telephone intervention; or (iii) continuing care plan only [see 13 for study protocol]. Conducted concurrently with this larger RCT, was a smaller study that aimed to examine the feasibility of delivering the McKay telephone continuing care intervention, where the CCWs were based within a ‘call centre’ (i.e.…”

“…Two supervisors were employed to work across both the 3‐armed RCT and the call centre feasibility study. The supervisors reviewed the audio‐recordings of the telephone sessions for protocol fidelity and provided ongoing supervision to the CCWs [see 13 for further details]. The supervisors were included in these interviews as they were able to provide unique perspectives on the delivery of the sessions and the challenges faced by the CCWs throughout the course of the study.…”

“…Recently, the telephone delivered continuing care intervention developed by McKay et al . [7] was trialled with individuals discharged from residential AOD treatment services in Australia [see 13,14]. Given the scarcity of literature examining clinician perspectives on implementing continuing care, the current study sought to understand CCW and supervisor perceptions of the barriers and facilitators to implementing the telephone‐based continuing care intervention.…”

Post-treatment Outcomes and Changes in Health Literacy of People Discharged from Specialist Substance Use Disorder Treatment Services

“…In total, 231 participants were included in the present study and were a subset of a sample recruited for a separate mixed-method randomised controlled trial (RCT) called the Continuing Care Project (CCP). See Kelly et al (2020) for the study protocol and "Procedure" section for more details on the CCP. The aim of the broader CCP was to investigate whether a telephone-delivered continuing care intervention (McKay et al, 2010b) improved outcomes for people discharged from residential SUD treatment (Kelly et al, 2020).…”

“…See Kelly et al (2020) for the study protocol and "Procedure" section for more details on the CCP. The aim of the broader CCP was to investigate whether a telephone-delivered continuing care intervention (McKay et al, 2010b) improved outcomes for people discharged from residential SUD treatment (Kelly et al, 2020). The continuing care intervention was not a health literacy intervention, and improving health literacy was not an aim of the broader CCP.…”