The Network Support Intervention was intended to help patients change their social support networks to be more supportive of abstinence and less supportive of drinking. NS was based on the Twelve-Step Facilitation (TSF) treatment created for Project MATCH (Nowinski, Baker & Carroll, 1992), and was designed to use AA as an efficient means to engage patients in a supportive abstinence-oriented social network. The program consisted of 6 core sessions, plus 6 elective sessions that were chosen by the therapist and the patient together. Core topics included a Program Introduction, Acceptance (of alcoholism as a problem), Surrender (giving up the idea of managing without support), Getting Active (changing one's social network), People, Places and Things (stimulus control of drinking), and Termination. Elective topics included: Enabling, Sober Living, Increasing Pleasant Activities, and conjoint sessions with the participant's spouse or partner. Each session included assignment of recovery tasks (homework) geared toward expanding the sober social network, and included family, social/recreational, educational and employment activities.
