Health
Funder

Preferred Family Healthcare Inc., through a Health Information Technology Grant provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Published On

Preferred Family Healthcare, Inc. (PFH) enhanced and expanded treatment services to rural drug court participants in Missouri through the Portal Plus program. This program provides virtual counseling services to individuals in outpatient treatment and offers a random sample of participants’ additional technology services through a smart-phone counseling support application. Portal Plus intends to demonstrate that the use of additional technology results in longer periods of connection with consumers, lower drop-out rates, higher participation levels and greater consumer satisfaction. Success in these factors, in turn, will result in more successful outcomes on traditional measures of treatment effectiveness.

PFH contracted IPP to conduct external evaluation of the traditional measures of treatment effectives, specifically reduction in past 30 day substance use, relapse events and criminal offenses. To measure these outcomes, the evaluation includes a simple pre-post design. Structured interviews are conducted with participants in Portal Plus when they enroll in the program, six months after their enrollment date and at the time of their discharge from the program. Participant satisfaction surveys are also completed at these time points. Outcomes for those with the additional technology will be compared to those with traditional virtual treatment services. Virtual substance abuse treatment is cutting edge and IPP is excited to see program success.