The Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Office of Addictive Disease operates four substance use intensive residential treatment (SU-IRT) programs, two of which serve adolescents ages 13 to 17 years, one serving emerging adult men ages 18 to 26 years, and one serving emerging adult women ages 18 to 26 years. SU-IRT programs provide 24-hour supervised, residential substance use treatment in a structured therapeutic community environment seven days per week. Residents work with a therapeutic team to develop individualized treatment plans that support recovery through participation in individual and group therapy, education, and recreational programming.

As the program’s evaluation partner, the Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health at the Georgia Health Policy Center engages in formative, process, and outcome evaluation with the IRT program sites. Additionally, the Center of Excellence provides financing and policy research, implementation support conducts literature reviews on best practices, facilitates peer learning among sites, coordinates workforce training efforts, and synthesizes and interprets program data to support data-informed decision-making and dissemination of findings.

Behavioral Health

Research & Evaluation