All About Oxford House, the Self-run, Self-supported Recovery Houses

The national non-profit organization created an independent Board of Directors and World Council by electing residents and alumni from around the United States. These boards recruited experienced leadership to work with these resident-committees to develop new strategies for growth and program excellence. Given the expanding federal deficit and obligations to fund social security, it is even more important for psychologists to consider inexpensive ways to remediate inequities within our society. The Oxford House model suggests that there are alternative social approaches that can transcend the polarities that threaten our nation (Jason, 1997). We believe that there is much potential in the Oxford House model for showing how intractable problems may be dealt with by actively involving the community.

• This principle contrasts sharply with the principle of providing the alcoholic or drug addict with assistance for a limited time period in order to make room for a more recently recovering alcoholic or drug addict.
• Oxford Houses also were more likely than TCs to allow residents to have personal possessions (e.g., pictures, furniture) within the dwelling (Ferrari, Jason, Sasser et al., 2006).
• Participants decided to move to an Oxford House based on information they received from counselors and peers indicating that Oxford House would facilitate their recovery.
• Substantial reductions in recidivism rates have been found when in-prison Therapeutic Communities (TCs) are combined with community transition programs (Hiller, Knight, & Simpson, 1999; Wexler et al., 1996).

However, there are many differences between an Oxford House and a Halfway House. A major difference is that an Oxford house does not include supervisors or paid staff. The goal is to build self-help, self-efficacy, and a sense of responsibility through this democracy system.

Benefits of Diet and Exercise in Long-Term Addiction Recovery

As a general rule formal AA or NA meetings are not held in an Oxford House member who has maintained comfortable sobriety in an Oxford House makes it a practice to attend a lot of AA and/or NA meetings on a regular basis. The charter of each Oxford House requires that an Oxford House meet certain minimum requirements of Oxford House, Inc. First of all, no Oxford House may permit individuals to remain as members if those individuals are drinking or using drugs. Second, an Oxford House must follow the democratic principles in running the house. Third, an Oxford House must, in essence be a good member of the community by obeying the laws and paying its bills. Oxford House is the largest network of sober living houses anywhere, with houses in all major areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The Oxford House organization is a publicly supported, non-profit 501(c)3 corporation, providing a network connecting all Oxford House homes and working to help fund and support growth in terms of new homes when needs arise. A) In 1975, a tight budget in Montgomery County, Maryland led to a decision to close one of the four county-run halfway houses. The thirteen men living in the halfway house rented the building and decided to run it themselves. They immediately decided to change the rule that limited a stay to six months because they had witnessed that when a person was required to leave because the time was up they almost always relapsed within thirty days of leaving. That was an important change because recovering individuals take different lengths of time to become comfortable enough in sobriety to avoid relapse. A halfway house is a place for people to live when they are preparing to re-enter society after living in a full-time facility.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) helpline

Using this cost-effective way to improve the chances of recovery from addiction may be the best way to show the community that recovery works and that recovering addicts can become model citizens. An Oxford House is simply a normal rented house for a group of at least six individuals. Once a charter is established, the house members are responsible for maintaining to home, the bills, and the Oxford House rules. People living in a halfway house are only permitted a certain length of stay. Nearly all members of Oxford House utilize the AA and/or NA program in order to obtain and keep a comfortable sobriety. However, an Oxford House relies primarily upon example for assuring a high percentage of AA and/or NA attendance from its members.

This study examined abstinence-specific social support and successful abstention from substance use in a national sample of over 900 Oxford House residents. Results were quite positive; only 18.5% of the participants who left Oxford House during the course of the one-year study reported any substance use (Jason, Davis, Ferrari, & Anderson, 2007). Additionally, over the course of the study, increases were found in the percentage of their social networks who were abstainers or in recovery. Finally, latent growth curve analyses indicated that less support for substance use by significant others and time in Oxford House predicted change in cumulative abstinence over the course of the study. Unfortunately, there have not been any outcome studies comparing TCs with Oxford Houses, although the first author currently has a NIDA funded study that is exploring this issue.

The Oxford House: Self-run, Self-supported Recovery Homes

An Oxford House usually needs six to ten house members to make rent affordable. After the release of our outcome study, Dr. Jason was called by a lawyer who asked if we could help him with a dispute. The case involved a town trying to close down the local Oxford House, claiming that there sober house could be no more than five unrelated individuals living in one home. Once the resident gains a solid foundation, they will transition to less structured or basic sober living. At the Sober Living, they may have a later curfew or no curfew and the other rules will be less intensive.

The rules which govern the house are for the most part also made by those who live in a particular Oxford House Such autonomy is essential for the Oxford House system to work. Each House represents a remarkably effective and low cost method of preventing relapse. This was the purpose of the first Oxford House established in 1975, and this purpose is served, day by day, house after house, in each of over 2,500 houses in the United States today. The benefit of Oxford Houses is they are a very inexpensive housing resource for people in recovery. The average cost in Atlantic County New Jersey for someone to move into an Oxford House is $480.

Reasons Community Service Is Essential To Recovery

It also acts as the coordinating body to help individual houses to organize mutually supportive chapters. Through chapters individual houses are able to share their experience, strength and hope with each other to assure compliance with the Oxford House concept and its respected standardized system of operations. The members of an Oxford House assume full responsibility for the operation of the House. The rent that is charged the members is determined by the members themselves in a democratic fashion.

• This suggests a large need for creative new types of screening methods to identify patients in need of treatment.
• In this same study, we examined the combined effects of 12-step involvement and Oxford House residence on abstinence over a 24-month period (Groh, Jason & Ferrari, 2009).
• Other general community activities reported by participants included working with youth (32%), fundraising (30%), and volunteering time with community organizations (23%).