Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach

The Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA) is a behavioural intervention that works on improving family, social and educational areas in an adolescent's life to support recovery from substance abuse and dependence. This also involves sessions with the learners by themselves, then with their guardians alone and then finally them together. Treatment sessions would include problem-solving skills to cope with stress, communication skills, and participation in constructive social and recreational activities with the goal of improving life satisfaction and eliminating substance use problems.

The goals of the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA) are to:

• Promote abstinence from alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs.
• Promote positive social activity. 
• Promote positive peer relationships and improved relationships with family. 
• Motivate caregiver participation in the A-CRA treatment process. 
• Promote the caregiver’s support of the adolescent’s abstinence from alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. 
• Provide information to the caregiver about effective parenting practices. 
• Help the adolescent and caregiver(s) create a home and community environment conducive to recovery. 
• Teach the adolescent problem-solving, communication, and other important skills through the use of role-playing

A-CRA can best be understood as a toolbox of different procedures that clinicians are trained to use as appropriate with a participant. For these procedures please go to the link below for the list in order to implement this approach. 

Taken from: http://www.cebc4cw.org/program/adolescent-community-reinforcement-approach/detailed

This would be a good approach to use with the High School Learners in the Mariann Ridge Community because they are needing to be empowered so therefore by learning all these skills they will be able to implement them in their lives and therefore make a change. One of their biggest problems is the use of substances in their free time or to help them forget about their problems. so these skills will also help them find better ways to use their time and therefore leave their use of substances. An idea that this approach has is to give the learners homework to do to reinforce skills that have been learnt and also to give them responsibility which could work well with the learners because it will also assess their level of commitment and participation in the group.This group of girls and boys is going to be a challenge but this approach could help assist with the drawing up of the programme with regards to the aims and group discussions done.