What is Contingency Management?

Contingency Management (CM) treatment for substance abuse is an intervention that provides tangible rewards to patients for reaching concrete behavioral outcomes. For example, vouchers exchangeable for retail goods or services or the chances to win prizes of varying magnitudes (usually $1-$100 in value) are provided to patients who submit drug-free urine specimens or attend treatment regularly. The goal of substance abuse treatment is patient change. Change is achieved by decreasing undesired behaviors and increasing desired behaviors.  

The goals of CM are to decrease drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior and to increase time spent in activities with non-drug using social supports and drug abstinence behaviors. For treatment to be successful, patients not only stop using drugs but also participate actively in treatment, work toward lifestyle changes such as getting a job, moving to a safe environment and socializing with non drug using people. Contingency management techniques, sometimes called motivational incentives, are an effective and powerful way to enhance behavior change.

Aspects of CM treatment include: using rewards and punishers in shaping behaviors, understanding the importance of contingencies, selecting appropriate behaviors to modify, identifying reinforces to use, designing monitoring and reward schedules. 

'The CM Solution' Training Package Includes:

CD-ROM:
Three principles in CM are understanding the background of CM, Designing a CM protocol and creating a CM protocol.

The Contingency Management CD-ROM teaches the basic principles of CM, has you test your knowledge as you learn and has you plan and design a CM protocol.  This is a step by step tutorial for developing a CM treatment, determining costs and helps you choose the CM treatment that is best for your clinic or office.   CM teaches you to learn how to choose a target, set up frequent measures of the target behavior to change, set up frequent rewards and to learn how to withhold rewards when target behavior is not occurring. CM teaches you how to design a CM protocol that is choose a behavior, set up a monitoring schedule, integrate escalating rewards, impose an immediacy for rewards and priming. Lastly, you will create a CM protocol to suit your practice or clinic.

Please contact abr@snet.net for more information about this product.   


The CM Manual:
The Contingency Management manual presents the background and rationale and research of the CM treatment. Teaches the behavioral principals related to CM, offers case examples for designing an intermittent schedule of reinforcement for a CM protocol, and discusses guidelines for implementing CM. Discusses selection and training and supervision of CM clinicians. (Click here to view Table of Contents)