On-site urinalysis: its advantages and implementation.

During the early and mid-80's, with the ever-growing number of adolescents passing through the juvenile justice system, our department began using urinalysis. This was, and still is, viewed as a valuable tool in the therapeutic milieu of the treatment of adolescent drug abusers. Urinalysis is used to confirm sobriety, which facilitates rehabilitation. As the clients gain control over their lives, urinalysis plays a reduced role in therapy.

With this in mind, we started using the D.C.A.R. treatment format (Detection, Confrontation, Accountability, Rehabilitation) using urinalysis to detect and confirm drug abuse and to break down the client's denial, enabling us to proceed with C.A.R. in therapy. Because of the increasing importance of this testing to our operation, we thought on-site methodology might be worth investigating.

Four issues surfaced that …