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“At the Las Vegas ARP we have the purpose, places, programs, people, and power to respond effectively to the recovery needs of the adult chemical addict,” says Mel Adkins, Ph.D, clinical program director.
Developed as a function of the Las Vegas Corps under the command of Lt. Colonel Jim Sullivan, Clark County Coordinator, and the direct administration of Rev. Paul Alexander, the program has responded to the recovery needs of more than 4,000 patients since it was developed in its present form in 1985.
Men’s programs are housed in the 89 bed residential treatment center, and both the men and women in the two week chemical dependency intervention program (CDIP) receive treatment here. The women in the program are housed at the new 32-bed Leid Women’s Residence.
All new clients must go through diagnosis, evaluation and treatment plan development, and the two week intensive CDIP. Its objectives are to intervene in the patient’s active addiction, resolve the patient’s motivation for recovery, and give the patient a foundation for ongoing recovery.
Need and motivation determine admission to the six-month Chemical Dependency Recovery Program. This offers 17 hours of group therapy, classroom instruction, individual therapy, and guided self-examination weekly in addition to the normal work week.
There is an ongoing arrangement with the Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services since 1987 for people who also suffer other psychiatric illnesses.
Out of a clinical staff of 11, three hold doctorates, six masters’, and one a bachelor’s degree. Patient to counselor ratio in the two week program is eight to one, and 15 to one in the long term program.
The current six-month sobriety retention rate is now slightly over 65 percent. The graduation rate from the CDIP is over 82 percent. Their six month success rate is consistently at least two or three times that of the national average. In 1987, the Las Vegas ARP won the Salvation Army National Social Services Model of Excellence award as the best social services program of any type in the United States and Canada.
