Computer-Based Typing and Keypad Skills Training Outcomes of Unemployed Injection Drug Users in a Therapeutic Workplace

Abstract

The Therapeutic Workplace is an employment-based treatment for chronic drug misuse and unemployment. As a part of this intervention, participants are taught skills to perform data entry jobs and are paid based on attendance and productivity. In this study, computerized typing and keypad training programs were evaluated in recently detoxified HIV-positive injection drug users (n = 32) enrolled in the Therapeutic Workplace treatment program between October 2000 and September 2001. Results show that trainees can be taught fundamental typing and keypad skills in an average of 51.48 and 1.73 h of training, respectively, administered over 17.91 and 12.59 weeks, respectively. Overall, the results demonstrate that adults with long histories of chronic unemployment and drug addiction can reliably acquire typing and keypad skills and do so over relatively short periods of time.

• Employment
• Reinforcement
• Vocational rehabilitation
• Substance use
• Keyboarding

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erin M. Dillon

Erin M. Dillon, B.S., is currently the study coordinator at the Center for Learning and Health at Johns Hopkins University and has also worked as the classroom supervisor and workplace coordinator. She graduated in 2000 from the College of William and Mary with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. She is pursuing a master's degree in educational policy.

Conrad J. Wong

Conrad J. Wong, Ph.D., received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology in 2000 from the University of Vermont. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research interests include developing and evaluating behavioral treatments for drug addiction, including the Therapeutic Workplace intervention and the Community Reinforcement Approach therapy. His main research focus has been assisting in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Therapeutic Workplace intervention for individuals with long histories of drug addiction and chronic unemployment.

Christine E. Sylvest

Christine E. Sylvest, B.A., received her Bachelor's in Psychology from the College of William and Mary in 2000. She then worked for two years with Dr. Kenneth Silverman and Dr. Conrad Wong at the Center for Learning and Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Currently, Ms. Sylvest is pursuing her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Some of her varied research interests include depression and anxiety, cognitive behavioral therapy, eating disorders, and women's issues in psychology.

Darlene E. Crone-Todd

Darlene E. Crone-Todd, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Psychology at the University of Manitoba, and is currently a Research Fellow at the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has published in the areas of computer-mediated learning and higher-level thinking. Her current research focus is on behavioral interventions for heroin and cocaine abuse among unemployed inner-city adults, as well as more basic research in behavioral pharmacology, shaping behavior, and choice behavior. Currently she serves as the Executive Coordinator, and as a member of the board of directors, for the Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior.

Kenneth Silverman

Kenneth Silverman, Ph.D., received his doctorate from the University of Kansas in 1984. He is currently Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His recent research has been funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and has focused on the development of evaluation of the Therapeutic Workplace, an intensive and long-term intervention to promote and maintain abstinence and employment in chronically unemployed individuals with long histories of drug addiction.