The therapeutic community as a flexible platform for the treatment of pregnant adolescents with dual diagnosis: A program design

The Project for Substance Use Stabilization and Parenting for the Future (PSUSPF) represents a new attempt at applying the therapeutic community (TC) model to the treatment of pregnant adolescents with moderate to severe substance abuse or dual diagnosis. This project tries to set a sequential development by presenting a current view of the state of substance use among women, and particularly among pregnant adolescents. Then, this project analyses those factors behind female addiction and the impact of substances on the mother and her child during the gestation period, and this review as a necessary background for the analysis of therapeutic efforts designed to treat pregnant adolescents. Subsequently, these first steps become a preamble for the presentation of the PSUSPF as a logical alternative for the treatment of the target population. The PSUSPF as a program design strives for implementing the principles of TC and its more recent innovations. Here with the PSUSPF, it is hoped to introduce the concept of the TC as a flexible tool capable of supporting the implementation of ancillary therapeutic interventions to address the needs of the target population. In this project, addiction and dual diagnosis are placed within a biopsychosocial context and interventions are implemented to operate at multiple levels. Within this modality of treatment, the concept of skills development to cope more effectively with the pressures of parenthood and self-development are seen as critical steps. Then, the immediate goals of the PSUSPF revolve around creating a rewarding environment where the clients will be able to improve their coping skills prior to their-return to the community. Finally, a new implementation of the PSUSPF is that of supporting more direct community involvement, as a way to change those environmental factors which foster addiction and hinders the delivery of mental health services within the larger community where the program is imbedded.