There is nothing normal about STC treatment centers. It is unique in its organization and structure. The staff at STC are trained in reading moods, testing the reliability of information, and adept at detecting lies. It was thought that a drug and alcohol treatment center located in the middle of a party town like Newport Beach would never succeed. Plus, the logistics of sober houses spread over several blocks and interwoven with party houses didn’t seem to indicate a healthy environment. Add to the odd mix clients mobility, easy access to alcohol and drugs, and lack of apparent supervision, and STC becomes a frightening place to send your children for help.
What surprises skeptics is that STC not only functions more efficiently than most in-patient treatment centers, but that it also allows the clients to recover in “the real world” which is the kind of environment they will eventually face. It is remarkable that STC clients are not only able to maintain sobriety, but they do so for a much longer time than they do coming from other treatment centers. The sheer numbers of former STC clients that stay in the local Newport Beach community makes STC an unusual facility and a successful one.
To try and duplicate the structure and operations of STC would be close to impossible (perhaps more possible with this report, but very unlikely). The geographic coincidences, the strong recovery community in the area, the knowledgeable staff of former STC clients, and the sophisticated network of communications, all work to create a recipe part brilliance, part devotion, and part divine intervention, or luck, if you prefer.
In the future, further studies must be conducted within successful treatment facilities to aid in the creation and redesign of programs that are not as successful. Former Governor Gray Davis of California, in association with Professor Allen Mobley of the University of California Irvine, is conducting a study of the most unique and successful treatment programs in correction institutions across California. We need the same type of research effort to analyze the treatment centers across the country. Better rehabilitation will benefit society. Programs, like the one at STC, need to be reproduced in other communities, if at all possible.
The benefits of the STC living community have yet to be fully investigated. It is apparent from this study that clients at STC benefit from being involved in the outside Newport Beach community. It is evident that many clients choose to stay in the community because of the connections that they have made at the Club. The length of stay is also a determining factor in the effective treatment of the clients at STC. The longer the client’s stay at STC, even if it is the minimum 90 days, the greater the knowledge the staff will have of the client’s behavior and recovery progress. A quantitative research study would also be necessary to further validate the statistical success of treatment at STC.
{ 0 comments }
