Factors Promoting & Obstructing Access to Additional Services in an Adult Felony-Level Drug Court

Adult drug court programs are known to be effective in reducing criminal recidivism largely attributable to mandatory supervised substance abuse treatment. However, this intensive treatment may still not be meeting all of the needs of participants or their families. Unaddressed needs may relate to parenting skills or trauma counseling for participants and their children.

Ongoing research at an adult drug court in the metro Atlanta area is currently embedding services for parenting and trauma counseling into individual treatment plans. Similar to any social service provision, however, perceived and actual obstacles may preclude participants from accessing or completing these services. Thus, we sought to identify circumstances, experiences, and other variables that contributed to and interfered with service engagement. Factors promoting and obstructing service engagement were identified through interviews with drug court participants, their families, and the service providers and case file reviews. Lessons learned are discussed in the context of implementation strategies.