Each young adult at OPI attends two psycho-therapy groups per week as well as one Apartment Milieu Group.

In addition, for those young adults at OPI that are dealing with unique issues, OPI provides additional opportunities for them to meet and discuss their particular needs in groups that are designed specially for them.

What follows is a description of OPI's unusual Apartment Milieu Group mentioned above as well as a description of out Two-Part Social Skills Group and out in-house Chemical Dependency Groups.

Apartment Milieu Group

The dynamics of people living together in many ways mirror the dynamics of conflicts that might arise in a family situation. So, in response to our beliefs that there are different issues and dynamics that occur between participants within their own living situations, we have added an Apartment Milieu Group.

This is a unique psycho-dynamically oriented group that differs from those twice per week psychotherapy groups in which participants come together from different apartments and where both sexes are present. The quality of the relationship with one's roommates or with people you live with is different and unique.

In these groups, participants discuss issues unique to their living environment as well as issues related to their abilities to share their space as well as responsibilities with others.

The intensity of contact and the amount of time participants spend together creates a more direct opportunity for the exploration of feelings that can occur between siblings and within a family setting.

Two Part Social Skills Groups

We have found that, while many young adults are sophisticated in many areas of life, some still require additional guidance and support when it comes to their ability to interact in social situations and with peers.

Sometimes for them, meeting and engaging a member of the opposite sex can be extraordinarily stressful as can saying a mere "hello" to a stranger on a college campus.

For these, OPI has created a unique group experience with two parts.

• Part One: This is a wonderful experience in which participants, under the guidance of a staff member, explore their unique developmental and social skills issues within the safety of the group process at OPI. Techniques such as role playing and behavioral rehearsals are utilized to gain greater social ease and acquire more sophisticated social interactive skills. Situations unique to the participants are discussed.
  
  
• Part Two: These participants go out into the community - to a college campus or the mall - to practice and have real life experiences utilizing their skills. Then they come back the following week to process their experiences and set new goals and objectives for the next week.

Chemical Dependency Groups

Many young people are not able to utilize traditional 12-step oriented community meetings as their sole tool for preventing relapse. Often these young adults do not have enough of a defined commitment to a personal/social life, professional identity, or family so that at this stage in their development their understanding of the consequences of relapse may not have enough immediacy, power or impact to prevent them from using substances again.

Still, traditional, community based 12-step meetings have always been powerful tools and many OPI participants attend these meetings in our local community.

But OPI has taken some applicable and helpful principles from the 12-step model and added some additional insights in order to provide an in-house model based on the principle that a supportive, respectful group of peers and staff members can be of immense value in remaining sober and drug-free.

Believing there is not one approach that works for everybody - and to meet the special needs of our participants - we also utilize three in-house groups in addition to the community based 12-step meetings. One in-house group uses a psycho-dynamic and cognitive behavioral approach to substance abuse issues. The second in-house group utilizes the traditional 12-step principles. And the third is a social group where participants learn that getting together and having fun in a supportive environment where nobody uses substances is not only possible but desirable.

All groups are supervised and run by staff.

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