Collegiate Recovery Programs: Helping College Students in Recovery Succeed

Abstract

College recovery services are designed to provide necessary supports for college students with issues related to substance use disorders to be successful in postsecondary education. However, as a still emerging form of student supports, major issues remain such as funding, the utilization of evidence-based interventions, effective program evaluations, and the need for more empirical research. This article provides a historical overview of Collegiate Recovery Programs (CRPs) and an examination of current issues facing the field; it concludes with recommendations for program administrators, researchers, and rehabilitation counselors.

College programming for students in addiction recovery: A PRISMA-guided scoping review

“…Early CRP reviews have focused primarily on post-SUD treatment considerations (Morgan & Cavendish, 1988) and the recovery school movement (White & Finch, 2006). More recent literature reviews have focused on how CRPs t into the recoveryoriented system of care model (Bugbee et al, 2016;Harris, Baker, Kimball, & Shumway, 2008; and how CRPs help students succeed (Brown, Ashford, Heller, Whitney, & Kimball, 2018;Reed et al, 2020), However, none of these reviews was systematic. The two systematic reviews completed did not report any quantitative ndings related to CRPs (Ashford, Brown, Eisenhart, Thompson-Heller, & Curtis, 2018;Hennessey & Finch, 2018).…”

“…There are an estimated 600,000 college students in recovery from an illicit drug and/or alcohol use disorder (ACHA-NCHA II, 2019; National Center for Education Statistics, 2017;Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2019). Colleges and universities are beginning to discover the increased bene ts of providing support services and improving health and educational outcomes among this student population (Reed, Almaguer-botero, Grizzell, & Watts, 2020).…”