Organizational change required for paradigmatic shift in addiction treatment.

The requirement for major organizational change to accomplish a paradigmatic shift for a staff at a residential addiction treatment center in Central Texas necessitates a number of strategies. The paradigmatic shift involves moving a staff accustomed to conceptualizing addiction treatment as a fixed-length program with similar components for all and levels of care as discrete programs to the concept of treatment as a flexible process that involves fluid movement of a patient through an individualized set of program components and multiple levels of care within one treatment episode. Conceptualization of the programmatic changes, necessary language changes, and the use of new criteria for patient placement and flexible movement between levels of care results not only in improved patient care, but also in improved staff morale if handled with cognizance for the principles of organizational change and adult education.