Devon De Silva & Antony Moss
Devon De Silva
Devon De Silva works for WDP, a national substance misuse service provider, and oversees the organisations Innovation and Research Unit (IRU). The IRU bridges the gap between academia and service delivery and is responsible for designing and contributing to research within the sector whilst also developing innovations that enhance service delivery. The IRU’s portfolio includes evaluating the impact of WDP’s digital innovations and adapting interventions traditionally used within the mental health field e.g. Animal Assisted Therapy.
Antony Moss
Antony Moss is Professor of Addictive Behaviour Science in the Centre for Addictive Behaviours Research at London South Bank University. Professor Moss’ research has focused on understanding the range of factors which impact on the development, maintenance, and recovery from addictive behaviours. He has particular expertise around the design and evaluation of public health campaigns and has been involved in the development of several national public health campaigns for alcohol and gambling.
Measuring the impact of the Capital Card® on substance use treatment outcomes
Presentation link: Pending
AIMS
To retrospectively evaluate the impact of a digital innovation known as the Capital Card®, a form of contingency management, on treatment outcomes within a community-based substance misuse service. The Capital Card, much like commercial loyalty cards, uses an earn-spend points system that rewards service users for their engagement. The Spend activities are designed to improve overall wellbeing and build social and recovery capital.
METHODS
We compared treatment completion rates of 1,545 service users accessing one of WDP’s London based community services over a two-year period; before and after the Capital Card® was introduced. Client demographics (age, sex and primary substance) were controlled for during the analysis.
RESULTS
Using a hierarchical logistic regression to predict treatment completion, we compared services user outcomes while controlling for differences in key demographics between the two cohorts. Results showed that the implementation of the Capital Card® was associated with a significantly greater likelihood of successfully completing treatment, with clients being 1.5 times more likely to successfully complete.
CONCLUSIONS
The results of this initial evaluation are of particular interest to professionals and researchers within the addictions and mental health fields as it indicates that the Capital Card® can be effectively used as a form of contingency management to enhance recovery outcomes for service users. In addition, this initial evaluation justifies the need for a larger scale evaluation of the Capital Card® which is currently in the early planning stage.
Poster link: Measuring the impact of the Capital Card® on substance use treatment outcomes