CPT Completes its Fourth Year Program Evaluation of NUWAY House, Inc. (NUWAYⓇ) Recovery in Supportive Environments (R.I.S.E.) Program

April 12, 2024

The Center for Practice Transformation recently completed its fourth year of a program evaluation of NUWAY House, Inc. (NUWAY)’s Recovery in Supportive Environments (R.I.S.E.) program. NUWAY, a Minnesota-based treatment organization, offers adult clients the option to receive a stipend of up to $700 per month toward recovery residence fees for those in need of a safe and sober living environment while they attend intensive outpatient (IOP) services for co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. 

CPT found that compared to self-housed people (e.g., living at a permanent address alone or with others, unhoused), those who lived in a recovery residence during their IOP treatment increased an average of 19 more days of sobriety from intake to 16 months post discharge, and were 3.8 times more likely to have an increase in sober days, 1.3 times more likely to have an improvement in depression symptoms, and 1.3 times more likely to successfully discharge from the IOP.  

However, CPT found that even when financial support was available for recovery housing, disparities existed in which clients accessed the recovery housing. In particular, clients who were female, black, multiracial, had a felony history, and had less education were less likely to enroll in recovery housing. Moreover, clients who had received treatment prior to their IOP admission, had been unhoused in the past six months, had four ormore prior treatment episodes for substance use, and reported 15 or more days of sobriety at intake were more likely to enroll in a recovery residence.  

CPT is currently in its fifth year serving in a program evaluation capacity for NUWAY and hopes to better understand the recovery journey and drivers for disparities in access to recovery resources.  

For more information on the program evaluation and its findings, please click here