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Training in therapeutic community and related approaches has not been widely available, and there is debate about the form this should take. This has had a negative impact on the field. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The authors consider the history of training in democratic therapeutic community methods in the UK in particular, and trace some of the reasons for its lack of development.

With the expansion of TC methodology into new areas, such as therapeutic and enabling environments, the ability to provide training in DTC approaches and techniques is increasingly important. The developing evidence base, and the increasing detail in which the method has been described, make dedicated TC training increasingly important.

Training in therapeutic community methods, and enabling and therapeutic environment approaches, provides a grounding in technique and theory that would otherwise be impossible to acquire for most workers, and can lead to a general increase in the level of competence and confidence in the way these environments operate.

Eric Broekaert passed away shortly after the XVIth European Working group on Drug-Oriented Research (EWODOR)-conference in Rome on 28 September 2016. He was one of the great TC pioneers in Europe, who founded the first TC for addictions in Belgium (De Kiem) and co-founded the European Federation of Therapeutic Communities and EWODOR. He was a respected Professor of “Orthopedagogics” at Ghent University and a Member of the Editorial Collective of Therapeutic Communities: the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities. The paper aims to discuss the overview of the career of Eric Broekaert.

In this obituary, the authors provide an overview of his career, major achievements and theoretical, methodological and integrative ideas, clustered around four typologies: university professor and scholar; manager and source of inspiration; TC pioneer and believer, and integrative thinker.

Besides his obvious merits as a TC researcher and advocate, one of his major theoretical contributions has been the introduction of the holistic, integrative approach and the idea that diverse types of interventions, as well as methodological approaches can alternatively go together.

He regarded TCs as the ultimate integration of various educational and therapeutic approaches to promote growth and quality of life among severely disadvantaged populations, such as drug addicts and children and adults with emotional and behavioural disorders.

This paper aims to review the clinical approach adopted in prison-based therapeutic communities (TCs) for working with residents who have committed sexual offences. It reviews recent research and practice developments and explores the implications for TCs.

This paper describes a “think tank” review process which explores and reviews practice. This paper discusses the current approach adopted by TCs when working with those who have sexually offended and explores changes in clinical approach which could be considered in the light of current developments.

This paper explores the implications for TCs of the recent research and wider practice developments in interventions for those who have sexually offended.

This paper presents clinical options for working with those who deny their offence and undertaking victim empathy and offence disclosure work. It makes recommendations regarding staff training and support. It also discusses the strengths of the TC approach and how these can be built upon.

This paper makes recommendations concerning how practice could be improved which promotes safety and public protection and enhances resident well-being.

There has been no recent review of TC clinical practice for working with those who have sexually offended.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the application of therapeutic community (TC) method in non-TC environments.

Milieu treatment is defined and differentiated from TC “proper”. Literature is reviewed covering attempts to use TC methods in inpatient wards, across hospitals, and more recently in the criminal justice system and more widely through the enabling environments initiative.

It is unclear whether TC milieu treatments proved helpful in acute ward environments in their heyday in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, in particular those involving people suffering from acute psychosis, and the changing landscape of psychiatric provision may make further investigation difficult. The reasons for this, and for the difficulties reaching a firm conclusion, are outlined. In contrast, TC milieu interventions appear to be demonstrating usefulness more recently in less mixed populations without the implementation of full TC “proper”.

Much of the research is old and the methodology poor, which limits the conclusions that can be drawn.

Recent innovations pick up in a more accessible way principles of therapeutic communities that can inform and improve care in a variety of contexts. They are sufficiently well defined to lend themselves to research, which should now be a priority.

After a gap in developments in the field, recent innovations are reintroducing elements of TC functioning to new contexts including criminal justice settings, inpatient wards, homeless shelters and city communities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore staff and service users’ perceptions of therapeutic principles within a unique male high secure learning disability therapeutic community (LDTC).

A qualitative approach was adopted using deductive content analysis and inductive thematic analysis. In total, 12 participants took part in a semi-structured interview to explore their perceptions of Haigh’s (2013) quintessence principles and any further additional therapeutic features in the environment not captured by the theory.

All five quintessence principles were identified in the LDTC environment. Some limits to the principle of “agency” were highlighted, with specific reference to difficulties implementing a flattened hierarchy in a forensic setting. Additional therapeutic features were identified including; security and risk, responsivity, and more physical freedom which appear to aid implementation of the quintessence principles.

The study was performed within a single case study design. Therefore, results remain specific to this LDTC. However, the finding of these principles in such a unique setting may indicate Haigh’s (2013) quintessence principles are evident in other TC environments.

This is the first research paper that has attempted to test whether Haigh’s (2013) quintessence principles are evident within a given therapeutic community. The research provides empirical evidence for the quintessence principles in a novel TC setting and suggests recommendations for future research.

There has been growing attention given to the concept of social climate as an element of prison practice. Research has indicated that more positive social climates can improve safety, psychological well-being, quality of life and contribute towards reduced reoffending. The purpose of this paper is to consider how the more positive social climates found in democratic therapeutic communities are constructed and how these practices can be replicated in other settings.

This paper adopts a reflective practice approach. The intention is to look back at the concept of social climate in prisons and in particular within a prison-based democratic therapeutic community (DTC); draw upon research and theory in order to critically evaluate the nature and effectiveness of that social climate, and; draw wider lessons about the nurturing and maintenance of social climates that may have broader relevance in prisons.

It is concluded that understanding and managing social climate is an essential aspect of improving the safety and effectiveness of prisons. Developing practices that enhance social climate requires looking beyond mainstream prison practices, towards niches such as specialist units and prisons, including DTCs and other therapeutic communities, and psychologically informed environments, as well as looking at practices in other settings including forensic mental health. Taking this wider perspective can be source of ideas and practice that could inform a profound culture change.

The paper offers an attempt to understand the distinct practices that create a more positive social climate in DTCs and consider how elements of this could be exported to other prisons. This has implications for both penal theory and practice.

In this chapter, I examine stories that foster care youth tell to legislatures, courts, policymakers, and the public to influence policy decisions. The stories told by these children are analogized to victim truth testimony, analyzed as a therapeutic, procedural, and developmental process, and examined as a catalyst for systemic accountability and change. Youth stories take different forms and appear in different media: testimony in legislatures, courts, research surveys or studies; opinion editorials and interviews in newspapers or blog posts; digital stories on YouTube; and artistic expression. Lawyers often serve as conduits for youth storytelling, translating their clients’ stories to the public. Organized advocacy by youth also informs and animates policy development. One recent example fosters youth organizing to promote “normalcy” in child welfare practices in Florida, and in related federal legislation.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the work of HMP Grendon, the only prison in the UK to operate entirely as a series of democratic therapeutic communities and to summarise the research of its effectiveness.

The paper is both descriptive, providing an overview of the work of a prison-based therapeutic community, and offers a literature review regarding evidence of effectiveness.

The work of HMP Grendon has a wide range of positive benefits including reduced levels of disruption in prison, reduced self-harm, improved well-being, an environment that is experienced as more humane and reduced levels of reoffending.

The work of HMP Grendon offers a well established and evidenced approach to managing men who have committed serious violent and sexually violent offences. It also promotes and embodies a progressive approach to managing prisons rooted in the welfare tradition.

In a companion paper, we have argued that therapeutic work with interpreters has been viewed more negatively than is warranted, and that the inherent advantages of this way of engaging with the non English speaking client have been minimised or ignored. This paper seeks to explore the aspects that may underlie the reluctance of clinicians to engage with therapeutic work with interpreters. Difficulties often appear to be centred on the anxieties provoked by working in the three‐way therapeutic relationship rather than in the traditional therapeutic dyad. It is also possible that the highly traumatised nature of some clients, who may be refugees or asylum seekers fleeing from political violence, also complicates such work. The intention in this paper is to consider both the dynamics of the three‐way relationship and the impact of traumatic experience, when relevant, on therapeutic work with interpreters, and to suggest how the pulls inherent in such work might be managed. It is hoped that by exploring these problematic areas, some light can be shed on the difficulties that all clinicians can experience but can equally overcome.

Therapeutic community (TC) is a primary approach that has been used in all Indonesian National Narcotics Board residential treatment centers since 2012. In TC, all daily activities are strengthened into habits and routines without strong therapeutic or educational reasons. But recently, the TC members become more critical and have growing individual needs. Thus, the Indonesian National Narcotics Board (INNB) tried to combine the TC approach with thematic group activities (TGA) intervention using an integrated individual approach to improve the outcomes. This study aims to evaluate the client’s behavioral changes after undergoing a TC approach added with TGA intervention for two months.

A mixed-methods study with the pre-post design was applied to 122 participants from six INNB rehabilitation centers. Pre-post behavioral changes were measured by using Client Evaluation of Self Treatment, University Rhode Island Change Assessment Scale, modified-Addiction Severity Index 3.0 and World Health Organization-Quality of Life instruments. Analysis was done by using univariate and bivariate on quantitative data, focus group discussion, and medical record review.

The participants’ mean age was 30.57 years, majority male, 50% graduated from senior high schools and were employed. Bivariate analysis resulted statistically significant (p-value < 0.05) in tendencies to seek treatment, participate more actively, maintain a good relationship with counselors during the program, and decrease the psychological problems of participants. The client’s social state, as well as adaptation to the program, were also amended.

TGA-added TC approach was proven to improve clients’ behavioral changes, particularly in social functioning, program involvement and psychological conditions, in people with substance use disorders.