Vanguard Services in Arlington, Virginia has 10 treatment programs in the Metro DC area. One of the programs, Deep Run Lodge, is an adolescent treatment program with separate campuses for boys and girls under the age of 18. During a change team meeting in early 2006, the members focused on the trend of unplanned, unsuccessful discharges within the last two weeks of treatment

Team members speculated that Deep Run Lodge clients could be feeling anxious about re-entering society, leaving the security of the treatment environment, and having to put newly learned skills to use in communicating and dealing with family. The team wanted to find a way to ease anxiety, help the clients recognize the progress they had made, and reinforce their newfound ability to live substance-free by applying the tools they had learned in treatment.

To help address and alleviate client concerns about re-entering the community, the team decided to schedule a celebratory lunch for the client with the counselor of his or her choice during the last two weeks of treatment. The team felt that the other clients in treatment would be motivated to continue in treatment by seeing others receive this additional reward. [READ MORE]