It is axiomatic that an attempt to address adolescent substance abuse problems will be less effective if youth and families fail to stick with the intervention long enough. One of the principal goals of the Reclaiming Futures Model is to implement performance management practices that allow communities to connect youth with appropriate resources and to monitor their interactions through to completion. Community coordination teams should specify how much of each service plan must be completed in order for the plan as a whole to be considered complete.

Another key concept in the Reclaiming Futures Model is that an intervention plan for justice-involved youth should be guided by, and rely as much as possible on community resources. Thus, completion of the service plan should be preceded by the gradual withdrawal of agency-based services and the engagement of youth and families in community resources and "natural helping" relationships.

"A 'successful' treatment episode can be characterized by three distinct phases, each of which presents opportunities for either success or failure. First, a client must contact the treatment system and access services (treatment access). Second, after contact has been made and a recommendation for treatment received, the client must begin attending treatment sessions (treatment initiation). Third, the client must stay in treatment long enough to complete the program, including aftercare (treatment completion). Factors that interfere with any of these phases are likely to lead to worse outcomes; for this reason, treatment process is of critical interest to practitioners" (Green et al., 2002: 285).

Green, Carla A. et al. (2002). "Gender differences in predictors of initiation, retention, and completion in an HMO-based substance abuse treatment program." Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 23(4): 285-295
McKellar, John, John Kelly, Alex Harris, and Rudolf Moos (2006). "Pretreatment and during treatment risk factors for dropout among patients with substance use disorders." Addictive Behaviors, 31(3): 450-460.

Of all youth engaged in services, how many (as a percentage) complete the service plan as designed?

Community treatment systems should track individual outcomes for all youth who are engaged in services, whether or not they actually complete the entire service plan.
Of all youth engaged in services who fail to complete the service plan, how many (as a percentage) are successful for at least one year?
Of all youth who complete the service plan, how many (as a percentage) succeed for at least one year? *

* Note: Success may be defined in various ways, including the absence of new arrests or new court referrals, no new drug use, reduced drug use, no subsequent referrals for drug or alcohol treatment, or some combination of these measures.