| Course | PAC 499 Senior Capstone |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 7 |
| Paper type | Capstone recommendations |
| Length | About 1,101 words, 7 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Psychology and Addiction Studies |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PAC 499 Module 7
Keeping the Call: Five Recommendations for Making Peer Welcome Calls Routine at Bluegrass Recovery Services
Student Name
Psychology and Addiction Studies Program, Aspen University
PAC 499: Senior Capstone
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Keeping the Call: Five Recommendations for Making Peer Welcome Calls Routine at Bluegrass Recovery Services
Jordan's three-month pilot at Bluegrass Recovery Services, the composite program used throughout this capstone, found thirty-day retention of 65 percent, 46 of 71 clients, against 52 percent in the six months before. Retention improved month on month, yet a chart with only three pilot points cannot meet any of the rules for real change. Once the intake card told clients a call was coming, peers got through to nearly everyone. In interviews, clients prized hearing from a person in recovery, getting answers about the logistics of coming back and sensing that staff were waiting for them; a few found the August calls stiff. Peers said time was hard to find and silence on the line wore them down. Five recommendations grow from these results.
Measuring Implementation, Not Only Retention
Proctor et al. (2011) argued that implementation research needs its own outcomes, separate from service and client outcomes. They proposed eight: acceptability, whether those involved find the practice agreeable; adoption, the decision to take it up; appropriateness, its fit with the setting; feasibility, whether it can be carried out there; fidelity, delivery as intended; implementation cost; penetration, how far it reaches those who could receive it; and sustainability, whether it is maintained over time. Their central point is that a disappointing client outcome means little unless one knows whether the practice was delivered well. For Bluegrass, the distinction matters: if retention slips next spring, the program needs to know whether the call stopped working or simply stopped being made.
The Five Recommendations
| Recommendation | Finding it rests on | Owner and date | Implementation outcome to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Make the next-day call standard for every new client | Retention rose during the pilot; clients valued the call | Clinical director; January | Penetration: share of new clients called |
| Keep the intake card and add a fixed calling hour for peers | Reach rose after the card; peers lost calls on busy days | Intake coordinator and peer lead; January | Feasibility: calls completed within one day |
| Turn the call guide into a short list of prompts | Early calls felt scripted; peers did better when they loosened the guide | Peer lead; February | Fidelity: prompts covered, rated monthly by the peer lead |
| Offer a text from the peer to clients the call does not reach | Clients not reached screened unknown numbers and stayed at the old rate | Peer lead; March, as a one-month test | Acceptability: client replies and comments |
| Continue the monthly run chart for six more months | Three months cannot show a shift | Intake coordinator; through June | Sustainability: calls still made and data still charted |
Why Prompts Rather Than a Script
The finding about scripted calls deserves attention, because a fix that makes the call less personal would undo what clients valued. Eddie et al. (2019) noted that peer roles in the research were often defined loosely and that peers' lived experience was the feature most often credited for their effect. The recommendation keeps the content of the call fixed, a welcome, practical questions, a brief personal story and a reminder of the next visit, while freeing peers to cover it in their own words. Fidelity is then judged on whether the content was covered, not whether the words matched.
Sustaining the Change
McCarty et al. (2007) described the principles NIATx agencies used to make and keep changes: understand and involve the customer, fix the problems that matter most to clients and staff, choose a strong change leader, borrow ideas from outside the organization and test changes in rapid cycles. Agencies that applied them reduced waiting times and improved continuation in treatment. Applied to Bluegrass, the peer lead should be named the change leader for the call, with protected time each month to review logs and data. Clients should continue to be asked about the call, through two questions added to the existing thirty-day check-in. And the text-message option should be tested as a small cycle with its own prediction, not adopted wholesale.
What Clients and Peers Asked For
Several recommendations come from the interviews rather than the numbers. Two clients asked whether the same peer who called could meet them at the second visit, and the peers liked the idea; it is not included as a formal action because the pilot did not test it, but the peer lead can try it as a small cycle in the spring. Peers asked for a short monthly meeting to share what was working on calls, which costs little and fits McCarty and colleagues' emphasis on involving the people doing the work.
Costs
The call's main cost is peer time. During the pilot, calls averaged about seven minutes, and with retries and logging, each new client took roughly ten minutes of peer time, about four hours a month at current admissions. The intake card cost little to print. The monitoring plan adds perhaps two hours a month for the intake coordinator and peer lead. Against this, each client retained is a client still receiving the care the program exists to deliver; the director can weigh these hours against what early dropout already costs the program in missed sessions and repeated intakes.
Monitoring Plan
Each month through June, the intake coordinator will report the number of new clients, the share called within one day, thirty-day retention and the run chart. The peer lead will rate a sample of calls for prompt coverage and summarize client comments. If calls reach fewer than eight in ten new clients for two months, the peer lead and director will meet to find the cause before changing anything else. If retention stays above the baseline median for six consecutive months, the program will have the signal the pilot could not provide.
What Bluegrass Should Not Conclude
The pilot cannot prove the call is why more clients stayed, and the program should not cite the 65 percent figure as a proven effect in grant reports or to funders. It shows that the call is feasible, acceptable to clients and associated with better retention over three months. Continued monitoring, not the pilot, will show whether the gain lasts.
Conclusion
The five recommendations follow directly from the findings: make the call standard, protect the time to make it, keep it personal through prompts rather than a script, reach clients who screen calls and keep measuring. Proctor and colleagues' outcomes let the program track delivery as well as retention, McCarty and colleagues' principles give the change a leader and a method and Eddie and colleagues' emphasis on lived experience explains why the call should stay in the peers' own words.
References
Eddie, D., Hoffman, L., Vilsaint, C., Abry, A., Bergman, B., Hoeppner, B., Weinstein, C., & Kelly, J. F. (2019). Lived experience in new models of care for substance use disorder: A systematic review of peer recovery support services and recovery coaching. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 1052. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01052
McCarty, D., Gustafson, D. H., Wisdom, J. P., Ford, J., Choi, D., Molfenter, T., Capoccia, V., & Cotter, F. (2007). The Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment (NIATx): Enhancing access and retention. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 88(2-3), 138-145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2006.10.009
Proctor, E., Silmere, H., Raghavan, R., Hovmand, P., Aarons, G., Bunger, A., Griffey, R., & Hensley, M. (2011). Outcomes for implementation research: Conceptual distinctions, measurement challenges, and research agenda. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 38(2), 65-76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-010-0319-7
Reading the PAC 499 Module 7 assignment instructions
The seventh module of PAC 499 generally asks for recommendations that follow from your findings, with a plan for putting them into practice. Let the Module 7 instructions in your Aspen course decide the format; this site and project are invented. Tie each recommendation to a specific finding. Make actions concrete: who does what, by when. Say how the site will know whether each action is working, using implementation measures as well as client outcomes. Plan for keeping the change once you leave. Note costs honestly, including staff time. Say what the site should not conclude from a short pilot, and cite each source in APA 7. Where possible, show the recommendations to your site supervisor first and note which ones the site has already agreed to.
Inside the PAC 499 Module 7 example
The pilot found retention of 65 percent against a 52 percent baseline, better reach after the intake card and clients who valued a call from someone in recovery. Proctor and colleagues' Administration and Policy in Mental Health article supplies the implementation outcomes. The NIATx account by McCarty and colleagues backs naming a change leader and testing in quick cycles. A five-row table links each action to its finding and its measure: making the call standard, protecting a calling hour, turning the guide into prompts, offering a text for unreached clients and continuing the run chart. Peer time is costed at about four hours a month. A section on what Bluegrass should not conclude warns against citing the pilot's figure as a proven effect.
Reading the PAC 499 Module 7 grading rubric
Recommendation sections earn credit for actions that follow from findings, concrete enough to carry out and measured in ways the site can sustain. This example ties every action to a result from the previous module, including the negative finding about scripted calls. Every action names who is responsible and when it starts. Proctor and colleagues' framework separates whether the call is delivered well from whether clients stay, so the site can tell a failed idea from a poorly delivered one. A sustainability plan uses NIATx principles. Costs are stated. The final section limits what the site should conclude, which keeps recommendations honest. Ideas from clients and peers that the pilot did not test are offered as small future cycles rather than as firm actions.
PAC 499 Module 7 help from the desk
Recommendations often go beyond the findings, proposing large programs a small pilot cannot support. Keep each action tied to a result. Make actions specific, with an owner and a date. Measure delivery as well as outcomes, so the site can tell whether a disappointing result reflects the idea or the execution. Plan for what happens after you leave; many student projects end when the student does. State costs, including staff time. Say what the site should not conclude. Discuss the recommendations with your site supervisor before submitting; actions the site has already agreed to read far better than wishes, and the conversation often improves them. Keep untested ideas separate from tested ones, and offer the untested ones as experiments.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More PAC 499 and Psychology and Addiction Studies sample papers
- PAC 499 Module 1: Choosing a Topic and Writing the Proposal
- PAC 499 Module 2: Problem Statement and Research Questions
- PAC 499 Module 3: Literature Review
- PAC 499 Module 4: Method and Evidence Plan
- PAC 499 Module 5: Gathering and Organizing Evidence
- PAC 499 Module 6: Analysis and Findings
- PAC 499 Module 8: Final Report and Reflection
- PAC 120 Module 5: Empathic Self-Disclosure and Confrontation
- PAC 799A Module 2: Problem, Purpose and Significance
- PAC 799B Module 3: Carrying Out the Project
- PAC 320 Module 2: Research on the Causes and Course of Addiction
PAC 499 Module 7 questions, answered
What does PAC 499 Module 7 usually ask for?
Aspen's PAC 499 covers recommendations in this module, so turning findings into specific actions with an implementation and monitoring plan is typical. Open your Module 7 prompt.
What are implementation outcomes?
Proctor and colleagues described outcomes such as acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility, fidelity, cost, penetration and sustainability, distinct from client outcomes.
What is NIATx?
A network of addiction treatment agencies that used rapid change cycles and a small set of principles, such as involving clients and naming a change leader, to improve access and retention.
Where can I find a free PAC 499 Module 7 sample paper?
The whole recommendations paper is here: five actions tied to pilot findings, implementation outcomes to monitor and a plan to sustain the change.
Why measure fidelity as well as outcomes?
When results are poor, knowing how faithfully the call was made tells a program whether to rethink the idea or simply deliver it better.