The Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA) is a comprehensive behavior program used by clinicians in treating individuals with substance-abuse problems. The program, based on the belief that a person's environment can have a powerful effect on one's recovery, uses social, recreational, family, and vocational factors in assisting people involved in the recovery process. Previous studies have shown CRA to be effective across geographic regions, for both inpatient and outpatient treatment settings, for individual as well as family approaches, and in programs that treat alcohol and other drug problems. This guideline is intended for use by clinicians who use the CRA with their patients. The purposes of the guidelines are to provide clinicians with a basic understanding of the principles underlying CRA, as well as a series of treatment strategies for developing and structuring an effective intervention that will work with a broad range of patients. The document also includes a resource section for clinicians to use in obtaining additional information about CRA. References