Therapeutic Communities: Can-Do Attitudes for Must-Have Recovery

Citation

Yates R (2011) Therapeutic Communities: Can-Do Attitudes for Must-Have Recovery. Journal of Groups in Addiction and Recovery, 6 (1-2), pp. 101-116. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1556035X.2011.570557; https://doi.org/10.1080/1556035X.2011.570557

Abstract
The therapeutic community (TC) in the United Kingdom was built out of a merging of the democratic TC tradition pioneered by Maxwell Jones and others immediately after the Second World War and after the American drug-free TC originating in the Synanon experiment in the late 1950s. This latter tradition traces its roots back through the mutual-aid fellowship Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). This article examines how AA principles were adapted for the TC and how this new approach impacted upon the early drug treatment network in the United Kingdom. The evidence base for TC methodology is briefly described along with a short analysis of the marginalization of the approach in the past two decades and the future possibilities for modified TCs for special populations.

Keywords
therapeutic communities; recovery; drug policy; Therapeutic communities Great Britain; Narcotic addicts Rehabilitation

Journal
Journal of Groups in Addiction and Recovery: Volume 6, Issue 1-2