Robert J. Meyers, Ph.D., who has dedicated his career to helping families eradicate alcohol and other drug abuse problems, has earned the 2002 Dan Anderson Research Award from the Hazelden Foundation. Meyers, associate director of the Clinical Research Branch of the Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addiction at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, achieved the honor for documenting the effectiveness of his Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) method for engaging unmotivated substance abusers into treatment.

The award, sponsored by the Butler Center for Research at Hazelden, specifically recognizes Meyers for "A Randomized Trial of Two Methods for Engaging Treatment- Refusing Drug Users Through Concerned Significant Others," a study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (2002, Vol. 70, No. 5, pages 1182-1185). His study compared CRAFT (and an expansion of it) to an Al-Anon and Nar-Anon facilitation therapy method. Both models sought to provide concerned significant others with the tools to get their drug-abusing loved ones into treatment. The CRAFT method was twice as effective at engaging drug users into treatment as the Al-Anon and Nar- Anon approach.

"Al-Anon is invaluable for families of recovering people," said Patricia Owen, Ph.D., director of the Butler Center for Research. "But sometime, especially early on when the family is struggling with what to do with their drug-using loved one, something more is needed. And it looks like Meyers has found an approach that is quite effective."

Meyers' work has been inspired by his personal family experience with alcoholism. "I come from an alcoholic family, as many of us do," he said. "I grew up and saw my mother suffer because of my dad's alcoholism. There's been so much emphasis on the drinker and so few resources for families. I've just had a soft spot in my heart for helping family members find solutions to addiction. My mother went to Al-Anon, but it didn't give her much to change the drinking behavior of my dad. And that's why so much of my research has been based on people who have lived with a drinker who refused to get help."

Meyers says that every study conducted on his CRAFT approach has found that six or seven out of every 10 people in denial of their problem have been persuaded to seek treatment. "Bob Meyers has a better mousetrap than the industry standard," said Timothy J. O'Farrell, Ph.D., chief of the Harvard Families and Addiction Program at the Harvard Medical School, who nominated Meyers for the award.

The most widely used options for concerned significant others have been Twelve Step programs such as Al-Anon and Nar-Anon or the Johnson Institute intervention. The Twelve Step programs focus on detachment with love and acceptance of the significant other's inability to change the loved one's drinking behavior. The Johnson Institute (JI) approach attempts to confront the person's drinking behavior with a family meeting, but only 30 percent of families who seek the JI intervention ever carry through with the family meeting, according to Meyers. Those who do are very successful, sending 85 to 90 percent of loved ones to treatment.

In Meyers' study of concerned significant others of drug users, 90 concerned others were randomly assigned to either CRAFT, CRAFT with additional group aftercare sessions, and Al-Anon and Nar-Anon facilitation therapy. Subjects in each of the groups received 12 hours of manual-guided individual training/therapy. Those assigned to CRAFT received behavioral skills training designed to influence their loved ones drug use and persuade them into treatment; those in the Al-Anon/Nar-Anon group learned the principles of their Twelve Step groups, with an emphasis on getting loved ones into treatment. The results: CRAFT engaged 58.6 percent into treatment, CRAFT with aftercare engaged 76.7 percent, and Al-Anon/Nar-Anon engaged 29 percent.

In a similar study of families of alcoholics (coinvestigated by Meyers), CRAFT was significantly more successful at engaging the alcoholic into treatment (64 percent) than was the Johnson Institute intervention group (30 percent) or an Al-Anon facilitation therapy group (13 percent).

In addition to his seminal work on CRAFT, Meyers has been active in work on the Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA), from which CRAFT is derived. He coauthored the first therapist guidebook on CRA (Guilford Press, 1995) and is senior editor and author of a volume on CRA from Cambridge University Press. His work with CRA has been successful in treating homeless alcoholics.

Meyers feels his work on CRA and CRAFT is well documented. Now he's working to make these models accessible to practitioners, through workshops, training tapes, and his work with the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. "I'm trying to spread the word-not many people are applying these models," said Meyers.

Meyers' research was selected as the best from among several outstanding candidates by the seven-member Scientific Panel of the Butler Center for Research. The panel includes Owen; Dennis Donovan, Ph.D., University of Washington; Barbara McCrady, Ph.D., Rutgers University; A Thomas McLellan, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania; Dorothy Hatsukami, Ph.D., University of Minnesota; Frances Levin, M.D., Columbia University; and Ken Winters, Ph.D., University of Minnesota.

Meyers will receive the award and a $2,000 honorarium in May at Hazelden in Center City, Minn.