TRIALS Coordinating Center to Reduce Substance Use, HIV Risk Behaviors, & Crime

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While 45 to 65% of youth in the juvenile system meet criteria for substance use disorders (SUDs), less than half have ever received treatment, and less than one third of those received treatment while under community or correctional supervision. Prevention and treatment are critical given that onset of SUD during adolescence can lead to significantly longer periods of substance use, more severe offending, and penetration in the justice system. Complicating things further, SUD severity is associated with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and mental health problems. Despite the preponderance of evidence demonstrating these youths¿ unmet SUD and HIV needs, the short and long-term consequences resulting from their unmet needs, the low implementation rates of evidence-based treatments, and low service utilization rates, a number of agency and system level factors serve to further widen the gap between need and service utilization. Through 3-5 Research Centers (RC), and one Coordinating Center (CC), the NIDA TRIALS cooperative will seek to improve the continuum of evidence-based services including HIV prevention available to youth within the juvenile justice system. The proposed CC combines the collective experiences of Dr. Michael Dennis and Dr. Chris Scott in operating 6 juvenile justice and 7 adolescent treatment coordinating centers across the continuum of juvenile settings (e.g., diversion, drug court, probation, detention, community re-entry, parole), prevention, treatment, and recovery settings. The Coordinating Center¿s AIMS are to: 1) conduct a national survey of juvenile justice agencies that provides a context and comparison standard for the TRIALS pre-implementation needs assessment and subsequent implementation studies; 2) coordinate each Research Center¿s preimplementation needs assessment; 3) develop and manage a common data base infrastructure for cross-site Research Implementation Studies, and 4) Provide state-of¿the-art communications and logistical support for the steering committee, workgroups, training activities and data safety monitoring board. Due to the complex and time-sensitive nature of the Coordinating Center¿s responsibilities, Drs. Michael Dennis and Christy Scott will serve as PIs for the proposed TRIALS Coordinating Center. Having two highly experienced researchers with complementary expertise work in tandem will ensure that our Coordinating Center will be able to simultaneously develop and conduct the national survey of juvenile justice facilities, as well as help ensure that the Research Centers meet the overall TRIALS research objectives.