Employment Issues Among Drug Court Participants

The overall goal of the current study, which was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant #DA13076), was to develop and evaluate an enhanced Drug Court employment intervention with the goals of improving drug treatment retention and reducing recidivism. Focus groups were conducted with Drug Court clients in order to gain a better understanding of employment needs in order to target and refine the enhanced employment intervention. As expected, findings indicate that Drug Court participants encounter a variety of employment issues. Perhaps the major theme that emerged is the consistent difficulty expressed by participants in balancing work and treatment involvement. Implications from this study provide important insights for developing employment interventions, as well as for further research.