Community Supervision: An Essential Part of Treatment Courts

By: Helen Harberts, Guest Author 

Persons suffering from substance use disorders do not just suffer during government hours!  Indeed, they often suffer more when they are not receiving treatment and attention from the team.   Recovery is difficult and it takes a long time.  Supervision works in the community, not just in the Court or the office!  Supervision should be going into the community—in the homes, cars, work places and other locations where participants might be found. Supervision should be performing these tasks frequently and during non-governmental hours.  Nights and weekends are extraordinarily difficult for participants who suffer from these disorders.   Having supervision drop by and encourage folks makes a difference. Forming partnerships with local law enforcement agencies who are trained regarding treatment courts is a best practice and extends your reach closer to 24/7.  This supports recovery.  Substance use disorders and criminal thinking do not work government hours. 

It is necessary to examine the recovery environment via search and home visits.  It is important to examine electronics, such as cell phones, to determine if texts, photos, or orders of illicit items indicate violations of probation have occurred.  Sadly, it is not unusual to locate orders for synthetic urine or designer drugs on computers and cell phones.  Nor is it unusual to see photos on social media of the participant in bars, drinking or engaging in substance use.   It is important for supervision to perform a public safety function if they detect activity by participants that may threaten others.  This is particularly important in Impaired Driving Courts.  Some of the persons in our courts can be dangerous.  It is important that supervision officers be field trained and equipped to deal with unstable or dangerous persons (and their associates).  Officer safety remains paramount.

Real Time Supervision

Timely information and response is crucial to the functioning of a treatment court.  Supervision provides real time information to the other team members and serves as the eyes and ears of the team.   Treatment providers gain information by observation and self-report.  Their work is greatly enhanced by supervision observations in the field.   Participants spend limited hours in treatment or in the Court. The remainder of their time, they are in the community.  What are they doing?   What choices are they making?   Who is hanging around them?   Can they identify threats to their recovery?   Do they understand what may impact their ability to remain in remission while working toward recovery?   Do they yet have a good awareness of their triggers, and how to address them? Probably not.  That is why supervision provides such a valuable piece of information to the court.  Most everything else the court learns is  dated information.

Supervision assists with recovery skills, and the mere presence of supervision helps people in early recovery avoid those who would threaten their progress.   Quoting Narcotics Anonymous: it is about “people, places and things” and that is what supervision should be monitoring on a constant basis to support success. By contacting persons in the field and “catching them doing right” supervision reinforces the message of treatment and of the Court.

Responsive Supervision

Supervision assesses participants for their risk and needs, and then responds accordingly to each element that is indicated by the instruments.   Stabilizing Maslow’s basic needs,[1]then moving to address issues which threaten life, and success on probation must be addressed.  By addressing needs correctly and monitoring progress, probation improves public safety.   On some occasions, probation may have to address public safety issues with swift intervention into destructive or harmful behavior.  Mostly, supervision supports recovery by providing structured interventions, enhancing engagement and motivation, and assisting with identifying challenges facing probationers.   Supervision is crucial in applying timely intermediate incentives and sanctions for detected behavior.

As probationers improve through treatment and interventions, the case management changes to respond to different issues, involving problem solving, pro-social norming, and life skills.   Supervision monitors as participants begin practicing skills and taking baby steps in recovery.  Supervision helps if people falter and they redirect the effort after some encouragement or education. 

Supervision: Making a Difference

Persons who are involved in treatment courts are generally high risk and high need.  As such, they need supervision and treatment based on assessments and research with fidelity to the model.  Frequent contacts in the community assist with identifying threats to recovery, support the development of refusal skills, and hold participants accountable for performing as the Court has ordered.  At each step, the participant learns valuable life skills that will assist them as they transition back into the community as citizens working recovery.

Get your supervision in the field and learn what challenges face your participants when they are not with you in treatment or court.  It improves their outcomes…and yours.

Footnote

[1]“Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. Maslow (1943, 1954) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others. Our most basic need is for physical survival, and this will be the first thing that motivates our behavior. Once that level is fulfilled the next level up is what motivates us, and so on.”  Simply Psychology, Maslow’s Hieracrchy of Needs, updated 2017. Obtained from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html