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Program Overview

Funded through a contract with the Colorado Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division, the new Women’s Short-Term Intensive Residential Remediation Treatment (STIRRT) program consists of 8 beds.  The program assists substance abusing female offenders who are on parole or probation, and fail to maintain sobriety.  This treatment is intended to combine the most recent advances in substance abuse treatment, including Motivational Enhancement and Strategies for Self-Improvement and Change (SSC) and Women’s Gender Specific Treatment enhancements.  The residential treatment portion of the Women’s STIRRT program offers 112 hours of intensive treatment over the course of 14 days.  The complete program consists of both a residential and continuing care phase and spans approximately 8 months.

Four Initial Client Goals:

 · To build trust in staff and peers to learn about alcohol and drug abuse;

· To gain awareness of the interaction of criminal behaviors and thoughts with substance use;

· To gain an understanding of factors leading to relapse and / or recidivism, and

· To connect substance use and criminal behaviors with the current situation and commit to long-term changes.

Continuing Care

Upon successful completion of Women’s STIRRT, clients are transitioned to the Continuing Care program.  Women’s STIRRT Continuing Care consists of an average of 3 hours per week to start of intensive group treatment over an eight month period.  This frequency and intensity will decrease as the women progress through treatment. Women’s STIRRT provides on-going assistance for clients to learn how to remain abstinent from alcohol and drugs and take responsibility for their lives. 

Admission Criteria

All clients are referred by probation, parole, Treatment Alternatives to Street Crimes (TASC), Denver Drug Court and Community Corrections.  Women must have severe substance abuse histories, one or more felony convictions, and must be at risk of being incarcerated in a Department of Corrections or county jail to be accepted into the program.  Women’s STIRRT is designed as an alternative to incarceration.  In the absence of STIRRT, these women would be entering jail or prison.  The goal of the program is to avoid incarceration in this very risky population.

Results Achieved

While STIRRT programming has shown promising outcomes for many years, the Arapahoe House Women’s STIRRT program is new as of August 2008.  Evaluation for both men and women’s STIRRT programs will be ongoing.  Six-month follow-up interviews are conducted with a random sample of clients.  We are interested in measuring the program’s effectiveness for women.

Hours & Contact

For More Information Contact: Brenda Duran bduran@ahinc.org