Abstract Introduction
WDP, an innovative substance misuse charity working across the UK, supports service users and their families affected by addiction. WDP has been working in collaboration with London South Bank University (LSBU) to determine whether WDP's sector first digital innovation enhances the likelihood of service users successfully completing treatment within a community-based substance misuse service. The Capital Card®, much like commercial loyalty cards, uses an earn-spend points system that rewards service users for their engagement. The Spend activities are designed to improve overall wellbeing and build social and recovery capital. Method Using hierarchical logistic regression to predict treatment completion, we compared the treatment completion rates of 1,545 service users accessing one of WDP's London based community services over a two-year period; before and after the Capital Card® was introduced. Client demographics (age, sex and primary substance) were controlled for during the analysis.
Results
Results showed that the implementation of the Capital Card® was associated with a significantly greater likelihood of successfully completing treatment. Service users with a Capital Card® were 1.5 times more likely to successfully complete.
Conclusion
The results of this initial evaluation are of particular interest to professionals and researchers within the addictions and mental health fields as it indicates that the Capital Card® can be effectively used as a form of contingency management to enhance recovery outcomes for service users. In addition, this initial evaluation justifies the need for a larger scale evaluation of the Capital Card® which is currently in the early planning stage. External funding details