Improving the retention rate for residential treatment of substance abuse by sequential intervention for social anxiety.

The focus of this study is to examine whether addressing social anxiety disorder (SAD) symptoms, which are directly related to residential substance abuse treatment, improves engagement and retention in individuals with comorbid SAD and substance use. Participants randomly assigned to the intervention will receive 2 individual and 2 group sessions of SAD symptom-targeted psychological therapy prior to inpatient treatment at Odyssey House, a residential drug and alcohol therapeutic community based in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. The group sessions will generally consist of only of 3-4 participants, and will be facilitated by a registered and experienced psychologist. An additional two therapeutic 'booster' telephone counselling sessions will be delivered within the first few weeks of the client's residency at the Therapeutic Community (TC). The psychological intervention includes psychoeducation, cognitive challenging, reality testing, attention training and facing feared situations in a gradual way. Two randomised control trials support the effectiveness of the program in reducing social anxiety symptoms and other related psychological problems (Rapee, Abbott, Baillie, & Gaston, 2007; Wilson & Rapee, 2005).