Understanding Length of Stay in Recovery Homes

Abstinence-specific social support within dyadic relationships is one of the best post-treatment prognostic indicators of recovery and is probably responsible for much of the effectiveness of self-help group participation. Acute treatment after-care in the form of sober-living environments-i.e., recovery houses-provides many opportunities for recovering individuals to acquire such support. However, like most recovery settings, recovery homes do not work for everyone. The current study was based on a longitudinal study of 602 Oxford House residents of which this study focused on 155 who at their first assessment, or baseline, had been in residence for 2 months or less, and we tracked them over time to see how long they remained in the recovery homes. For new residents who had only been in the recovery homes for 1/2 weeks, the ultimate rate of departure was about 40%. However, for residents with 2 weeks of time during the first assessment, the rate of departure fell to about 31%. By the time a resident had 6 weeks of residence in the recovery homes, the hazard for leaving the homes had dropped to about 25%. In conclusion, the hazard of leaving the home over time dropped off rapidly as time in residence accumulated. In addition, having an important person from the recovery home in one's social network predicted lower hazard rates, given accumulated time in residence. The study indicates that the first few weeks in recovery homes are particularly vulnerable times for residents to leave prematurely, so more efforts are needed to better understand why some residents are able to maintain residency during these critical first weeks in these settings.