The proposed project's goal is to reduce the rate of relapse among recovering alcoholics and to interrupt the family transmission of alcoholism by training alcoholism treatment professionals in the role that family dynamics plays in supporting the recovering alcoholic's journey to ongoing sobriety. A computer-driven, laserdisc-based training program will be developed to achieve this goal during Phase II. The program will be based on and will accompany a print curriculum, Maintaining Abstinence Programs (MAPS), developed at the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, California. The final product will be designed so that it can be used 1) as a curriculum-specific training tool; 2) as a professional education tool providing an introduction to family recovery issues; and 3) as a supplementary source of audio-visual material to enhance the curriculum itself. During Phase I, staff will analyze the print curriculum; review videotaped research interviews on which it is based; create an instructional design; and develop and field-test a prototype product. These tasks will demonstrate the feasibility of developing a full-scale, multimedia training program that will innovatively apply video and computer technologies to the alcohol treatment and recovery field for purchase by alcohol treatment programs and facilities.
