In recovery from substance use, change is almost never linear. People stop, start again, try different things, get stuck, and keep going. This is not failure — it is the normal shape of recovery. Understanding this is one of the most important things a worker can bring to substance use support.
The Stages of Change model — developed by Prochaska and DiClemente through research on people stopping smoking — gives workers a framework for understanding where someone is in their relationship with their substance use, and what kind of support is most helpful at each stage.
This module applies the Stages of Change model specifically to recovery from substance use — a context where matching your support to the person's stage is particularly important, and where getting it wrong (offering action-stage support to someone in pre-contemplation) is one of the most common ways that engagement breaks down.
This is a Foundation-level module within Subject 6: Substance Use and Recovery. If you have also read Module 3.7 (Understanding the Stages of Change), this module applies the same framework specifically to substance use contexts.