Decreasing Premature Termination of Addiction Treatment for Adolescent Females Through the Utilization of an Assessment Tool to Evaluate the Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Level of Motivation

Background: Premature discharge from a residential addiction treatment setting increases a patient's risk of relapse and the development of comorbid mental health disorders. Current evidence suggests that promoting intrinsic motivation, through a therapeutic approach, into a patient's treatment plan can increase retention and decrease relapse after discharge. Obstacles may include the clinician's lack of understanding and awareness of an individual's level of motivation and how it influences retention in treatment, how to assess an individual's level of motivation, and how to promote intrinsic motivation. Methods: A quality improvement project was implemented to address the elevated premature discharge rate from a residential treatment center for adolescent females receiving treatment for addictive behaviors. This project involved implementing a training to improve clinician knowledge of neurobiology and concepts related to motivation and change. A toolkit for clinicians was developed to increase clinician confidence in assessing an adolescent's level of motivation and how to utilize the established program, Family Healing Program, to increase intrinsic motivation. Following the training, clinicians' understanding, and confidence was reevaluated to determine the training's efficacy. Following one month post implementation of the toolkit, the decrease rates pre-project implementation were to compared to the rates post-implementation to see if premature discharge form the residential treatment center decreased. Results: Increases were observed in clinician knowledge, confidence in assessing patient motivation through the Motivation for Youth's Treatment Scale (MYTS), and improved understanding in the application of the Family Healing program to increase intrinsic motivation. A decrease in premature discharge rates from the adolescent treatment center decreased by 15%. Conclusion: Providing clinicians with trainings and a toolkit in an adolescent treatment center setting can increase knowledge and understanding regarding the neurobiology associated with the influence of motivation for individuals with addictive maladaptive behaviors. Improving clinicians' knowledge on how motivation plays a role in recovery and providing the MYTS tool can further increase clinician confidence and improve access to a tool in assessing an individual's level of motivation. Further research is recommended to evaluate the efficacy of the MTYS tool in decreasing the premature discharge rate of adolescent females from an adolescent female treatment setting.