Kenneth Silverman has been on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for over 30 years and is currently a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. His research has focused on developing operant treatments to address the interrelated problems of poverty and health. Concentrating on low-income adults, his research has investigated abstinence reinforcement interventions for the treatment of heroin and cocaine addiction; financial reinforcement to promote and maintain viral suppression in adults living with HIV; computer-based training to establish academic and job skills that chronically unemployed adults need to gain and maintain employment and escape poverty; and a reinforcement-based therapeutic workplace to promote and maintain drug abstinence and employment. He has made two major contributions: 1) He has shown that operant reinforcement can serve as a maintenance intervention to sustain long-term therapeutic behavior change in addressing chronic health problems. 2) He has developed the therapeutic workplace to treat drug addiction, promote employment, and reduce poverty.
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