Factors Associated with Successful Completion of a Comorbid Substance Abuse and Mental Health Intensive Outpatient Group

An East Tennessee community mental health center, specializing in co-occurring substance abuse and mental health services, has an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) that utilizes a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and relapse prevention. Currently, 50% of individuals who enter the IOP program fail to graduate. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors associated with successful program completion. Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted on data from 116 participants in the IOP group. A logistic regression model was used to determine which factors were related to successful program completion. Results: The overall regression model was found to be statistically significant, (χ2 (20, N = 115) = 39.06, p < .05). Results indicate that age was a significant variable (p = .026), and with each increment in age, the odds of completion increased by almost 6%, when controlling for other variables in the model. Likewise, each increment of medication adherence (p = .024) increased odds by 46.6%. Conclusions: Acquiring insight into the backgrounds of the individuals who enter the IOP will allow practitioners at the local mental health center to better understand their clients, and in turn, adapt their program to increase retention rate.