Curriculum Review of Adolescent Recovery Plan

By Sarah Barton (Sagamore Institute Faith in Communities, 2005)

Adolescent Recovery Plan: Continuing Care is a workbook designed for teens that have been in treatment for substance abuse and are returning to their homes and communities.  Because they will no longer be under the close supervision of the staff of the treatment facility, it is essential that they accept and follow recovery principles.  This workbook will assist them in their recovery and help them to replace their substance use with a healthy lifestyle.

The premise of this workbook is that an adolescent should be supported by a family-team made up of drug- and alcohol-free people who will care about and encourage his recovery.  The teen is responsible for choosing his own team, which should include family members, counselors, sponsors from Twelve Step programs and other supportive individuals. The workbook contains some exercises the teen will complete individually and others that are designed to be completed by the teen and his family-team as a group.

The workbook is organized into five lessons.  Each lesson is divided into Goals, Why, What, and How sections.  The Goals sections provide a brief explanation of what the teen should gain from the lesson.  The Why sections contain an explanation of why achieving this goal is important to the teen's recovery.  What sections set forth recovery principles and are followed by How exercises aimed at assisting the teen and his family-team to apply the principles to their lives.  Each lesson concludes with a family-team contract committing the teen and the members of the team to apply the principles in the lesson and support the teen's recovery.

Lesson One is entitled Taking Responsibility.  It helps the teen to examine both his own responsibility for his recovery and his need for the support of others.

Lesson Two, Keeping My Eyes Open, provides the teen with the information and skills necessary to identify the warning signs of relapse and to develop values and standards supportive of his recovery.

Lesson Three is entitled Keeping My Heart Open and is geared toward helping the teen to gain powers essential to his recovery:  sobriety, trust, self-esteem, self-discovery, and a healthy lifestyle.

Lesson Four is called Keeping My Mind Open.  This lesson will assist the recovering teen to develop positive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and improve his relationships with others.

Lesson Five, Keeping My Soul Open, helps the teen to develop his spirituality.

The workbook concludes with a section in which the teen will write a commitment to his own future.

A complete Adolescent Recovery Plan curriculum, including a facilitator's guide, video and other materials is available from