Health & Housing Security

Community member health and housing security are key indicators of community well-being.

SIROW’s work in these areas includes:

  • Prevention and intervention programs to address health and housing disparities
  • Increasing access to healthcare and housing for historically underserved populations
  • Creating systems of care to address correlated and co-occurring health-related issues
  • Identifying factors that impact health and housing disparities
  • Training providers, gatekeepers, and decision-makers to recognize need and provide affirming, non-judgmental healthcare, treatment, and services

Current Projects

U-MATTER team

SIROW's U-MATTER project team

This project examines the feasibility, acceptability, implementation, and effectiveness of an innovative law enforcement/behavioral health peer support co-responder deflection model to address misuse of opioids and other substances—the Deflection Program. The Deflection Program aims to expand access to substance use treatment, including medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for people with opioid use disorder (OUD), by:

  1. identifying and connecting adults with substance use disorders (SUDs) to appropriate treatment, and
  2. providing ongoing peer support in the community to support retention and re-engagement in MAT.

Under the Deflection Program, police officers and co-responding peer support specialists identify and connect individuals with substance use problems who are willing to consider treatment to a treatment provider in lieu of arresting them. Clinic staff assess and enroll the individuals in appropriate evidence-based treatment. This research project assesses feasibility and acceptability of the Deflection Program in terms of support for the program among police officers, behavioral health staff, and community members, as well as amount of outreach efforts, number of deflections, and number of people engaged and retained in substance use treatment. We examine implementation of the Deflection Program via an evaluation of how partners collaborate to implement the program. Utilizing a rigorous research design, we also examine the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the Deflection Program in addressing substance use and related problems, including criminal activity and opioid-related overdoses and deaths. This research project advances the fields of law enforcement and behavioral health, inform policy change, and advance the fight against the opioid epidemic.

Research Findings: Publications, Presentations, and Reports
2023

Behavioral health and law enforcement: Finding common ground in the Tucson Police Department’s Deflection Program. Korchmaros, J., Hall, K., Barden, D., & Oñate, L. (April, 2023). Paper presented at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit annual conference, Atlanta, GA.

Practical guidance for a law enforcement/behavioral health co-responder approach to outreach for a deflection program: implementation and assessing impact. Korchmaros, J., Brady, J., & Gallaher, L. (May, 2023). Paper presented at the Arizona Summit for Public Safety + Behavioral Health, Mesa, AZ

Costs and outcomes of a pre-arrest deflection program to combat opioid misuse. Korchmaros, J., & Hall, K. (May, 2023). Paper presented at the American Society of Evidence-based Policing annual conference, Las Vegas, NV.

2022

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Law Enforcement Pre-arrest Deflection Program. Korchmaros, J. D. & Hall, K. (2022, December). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, Southwest Institute for Research on Women.

Costs, Cost Savings, and Effectiveness of a Police-led Pre-arrest Deflection Program. Korchmaros, J. D., Bentele, K. G., Granillo, B., & McCollister, K. (2022, December) Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, Southwest Institute for Research on Women.

Outcomes of a law enforcement/behavioral health approach to combat opioid misuse. Korchmaros, J. & Hall, K. (May, 2022). Paper presented at American Society for Evidence-based Policing, Washington DC.

Outcomes of a law enforcement/behavioral health approach to combat opioid misuse v 2. Paper presented at a meeting of the Pima County Community Prevention Coalition Medicine Abuse Prevention Initiative Collaborative (MAPIC), Korchmaros, J. & Hall, K. (July, 2022). Tucson, AZ.

Perceptions of a law enforcement substance misuse intervention. Poster presented at the International Woman’s and Children’s Health and Gender Group Conference (InWomen Conference), Korchmaros, J. (June, 2022). Minneapolis, MN

2021

U-MATTER: A unified medication-assisted treatment targeted engagement response to the opioid epidemic in Pima County - Impacts at 18 months. Korchmaros, J. D. (February, 2021). Paper presented at the Pima County Justice Coordinating Council Meeting. Tucson, AZ.

U-MATTER: Program Sustainability Focus Group Report. Korchmaros, J. D., & Bentele, K. G. (January, 2021). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, Southwest Institute for Research on Women.

2020

U-MATTER Behavioral Health Staff and Co-responder Focus Group Report. Korchmaros, J., & Bentele, K. (2020) Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, Southwest Institute for Research on Women.

Tucson Police Department Deflection Program: Impact at 18 Months. Korchmaros, J., & Bentele, K. (2020).  Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, Southwest Institute for Research on Women.

2019

U-MATTER: A unified medication-assisted treatment targeted engagement response to the opioid epidemic in Pima County. Barden, Daniel., Sargus, Tamara., & Ramos, Mayra. (July, 2019). Paper presented at the Annual Summer Institute for Behavior Health, Flagstaff, AZ.

Treatment and Law enforcement: A collaborative approach to combat the opioid epidemic. Brady, J., Ramos, M., Barden, D., & Oñate, L., & Korchmaros, J. D. (April, 2019) Paper presented at the American Society of Addiction Medicine Annual Conference, Orlando, FL.

Treatment and Law enforcement: A collaborative approach to combat the opioid epidemic. Brady, J., Korchmaros, J. D., & Oñate, L. (February, 2019). Paper presented at the Winter Institute: Public Safety and Behavioral Conference, Phoenix, AZ.

Evaluation of the impact of a collaborative approach to address the opioid epidemic in Pima County. Korchmaros, J. (December, 2019). Paper presented at the Motivational Interviewing: An Approach for Public Safety & Criminal Justice Training, Tucson, AZ. 

Law enforcement, treatment, research: A collaborative approach to combat the opioid epidemic. Korchmaros, J. D., Stropka, E., & Oñate, L. (July, 2019). Paper presented at the National Association of Drug Court Professionals Annual Training Conference, National Harbor, MD.

Tucson Police Department Deflection Program: 6 Month Evaluation Findings. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, Korchmaros, J. D. (May, 2019). Southwest Institute for Research on Women.

U-MATTER Summary of Outreach Activities. Korchmaros, J. D. (January, 2019). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, Southwest Institute for Research on Women.

2018

U-MATTER Deflection Decisions Evaluation Findings. Korchmaros, J. D. (November, 2018). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, Southwest Institute for Research on Women.

Additional Project Information:

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Josephine Korchmaros, Keith Bentele, Brenda Granillo, Dora Bezies-Lopez, Nicole Borchaloui, Fedora Preston-Haynes, Tamara Sargus

Project partners: Tucson Police Department, CODAC Health, Recovery & Wellness, Inc., Kathryn McCollister

Location: SIROW Central, 3776 N. 1st Ave., STE. 102, Tucson, AZ 85719

This project will adapt an existing hypertension medication self-management system to develop Medication Education, Decision Support, Reminding, and Monitoring- Memory (MEDSReM-M) to meet the needs and abilities of people with mild cognitive impairment. Facilitators and barriers for use of MEDSReM-M will be identified by interviewing people with mild cognitive impairment and their care partners, after they are shown the self-management system to guide the development of MEDSReM-M. Then using heuristic evaluations and cognitive walkthroughs, and through iterative usability testing with people with mild cognitive impairment, we will test, redesign, and optimize the system for people with mild cognitive impairment. We will then conduct a randomized controlled trial to test the effects of MEDSReM-M relative to a standardized educational control group on outcomes including adherence to hypertension medications, blood pressure, self-determination (competence and autonomy), and technology acceptance. This project will result in a digital health intervention system that has the potential to reduce cognitive decline associated with cardiovascular risks, save healthcare dollars, and promote autonomy and quality of life in people with mild cognitive impairment.

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

Project partners: University of Arizona College of Nursing, University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Practice & Science, University of Arizona Departments of Psychology, University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign, Ephibian Tech Company

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

The Dragonfly Community Center Supportive Services for Homeless Individuals and Families is a collaboration between Amity Foundation and SIROW with Amity Foundation’s Dragonfly program providing services and SIROW serving as the external evaluator for the overall project. The project aims to serve homeless individuals living in or referred to our transitional housing community. The project’s overarching goal is to expand Intensive Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment services to serve more homeless individuals and families in Pima County, Arizona. A total of 350 adult individuals will be enrolled in the project over the 5-year grant period. The evidenced-based practices embedded within an array of services include:

  1. Modified Therapeutic Community for Persons with Co-Occurring Disorders,
  2. Seeking Safety to address trauma, and
  3. Strength-based Case Management to assist with providing helpful and appropriate services.

Evaluation activities include obtaining baseline and six-month follow-up assessments from enrolled participants, data feedback meetings to improve participant services, and dissemination of findings more broadly.

Contact: Rosi Andrade, rosia@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Rosi Andrade, Sally Stevens, George Lopez, Keith Bentele

Project partners: Amity Foundation

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

Funded by the Garcia Family Fund.  This project (a collaboration between researchers at ASU, UA, and NAU) will assist in estimating the incidence and prevalence of homelessness in Arizona for children, youth, and adults using linked cross-system administration data and health and psychosocial characteristics most likely to produce homelessness and result in successful exits of homelessness. There are four aims—identify and geo map the data; identify features associated with homelessness; identify the most effective programs and interventions; and do a cost/benefit analysis on programs/interventions/outcomes. Data will be drawn from six sectors: healthcare, housing/homelessness services, economic security, education, criminal justice, and child welfare. We will use various community engagement strategies to share findings, including presentations at monthly CoC meetings, a data dashboard, annual data summits, and an online system through which community partners can suggest research questions or request analyses from project data. Results will provide valuable information on the prevalence, incidence, histories, and strengths of individuals experiencing homelessness in Arizona, which have implications for tailoring policies, programs, and services for this population. The intent also is to link this project to the statewide HMIS data warehouse/lake under development, if and as agreed to by those participants.

Contact: Keith Bentele keithb@arizona.edu

The purpose of the Health Home Hope (H3) Project is to end the cycle of homelessness for households currently experiencing long term unsheltered homelessness in Tucson and Pima County through the expansion, integration, and coordination of local community behavioral health (BH), physical health and housing support systems. H3 provides BH and other recovery-oriented services to those experiencing long-term unsheltered homelessness through:

  1. intensive street outreach,
  2. navigation designed to rapidly connect individuals with substance use disorder and or co-occurring disorders to mainstream treatment and recovery services including Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), and 
  3. coordinate housing and services that support sustained recovery and wellness within permanent housing.

The population of focus is unsheltered homeless households in Pima County experiencing substance use disorders and chronic health conditions, including single adults, youth and families. SIROW conducts evaluation for this project.

Contact: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Claudia Powell, Corrie Brinley, Keith Bentele, George Lopez

Location: SIROW Silverlake Park, 

The Hep C study is an epidemiologic study of community‐based screening for hepatitis C (HCV) among people who use drugs in Arizona will demonstrate the outcomes of public health investment in community‐ based screening for HCV. This study includes a secondary analysis of screening outcomes by a statewide harm reduction partner (Sonoran Prevention Works) and a secondary analysis of interview data from 131 people on MOUD in Arizona. Collaborators include the Sonoran Prevention Works, the Arizona statewide Drug Policy Research and Advocacy Board (DPRAB), the Southwest Recovery Alliance and the Arizona statewide hepatitis C free coalition.

Contact: Beth Meyerson, bmeyerson@arizona.edu

Project partners: Sonoran Prevention Works, Arizona statewide Drug Policy Research and Advocacy Board (DPRAB), Southwest Recovery Alliance, Arizona statewide hepatitis C free coalition

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

The goal of this project is to test the effectiveness of an innovative, culturally- tailored, coordinated care intervention derived from previous research (RxHL Study, 1R01HL120907) and existing pilot medication therapy management program at the research site. Building on an ecosocial framework of chronic disease self-management, the IMPaCT intervention by pharmacist-community health worker team will identify and address individual, clinical, social-cultural and structural barriers to medication adherence among low income minority patients with hypertension, polypharmacy use and nonadherence.

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Josephine Korchmaros, Brenda Granillo

Project partners: University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Practice & Science, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Caring Health Center, Springfield, Massachusetts

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

The major goal of this project is to advance and test Medication Education, Decision Support, Reminding, and Monitoring System 2.0 (MEDSReM-2), a theory-based, technology-enhanced comprehensive self-management system that supports hypertension medication adherence and blood pressure management for non-adherent older adults. This project employs an evidence-based, multidimensional approach aiming to increase levels of perceived competence and autonomy, higher and sustained medication adherence, and improved blood pressure levels for older adults (≥ 65 years) who self-manage at least one hypertension medication and who do not adhere to their medication regimens. This project employs an app-based intervention with customized, cue-driven associative processes, relevant education and decision support (what to do after a missed dose), and promotion of competence and autonomy to motivate individuals to engage in the intervention, thereby sustaining its effectiveness over time.

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

Project partners: University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Practice & Science, University of Arizona College of Nursing, Gillis Einstein, University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign, Ephibian Tech Company

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

Let's Measure Better Project

Let’s Measure Better is a direct response to the paucity of good quality and up-to-date information on homelessness and housing insecurity in Tucson and Pima County. These data gaps were on full display in recent years as local policymakers, government officials, and non-profit staff attempted to navigate the pandemic, the ensuing recession, and the expiration of the eviction moratorium with only very spotty information on what was happening in our community (in regards to homelessness and housing insecurity). The major goals of this project include: 1) identifying critical data gaps through focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders in the homelessness services community in Tucson (including leadership in county and city housing and homelessness offices, nonprofit employees, and people experiencing homelessness locally); 2) facilitating efforts to address these identified data gaps through the creation of working groups focusing on different specific efforts; and 3) SIROW researchers will independently collect and compile data on homelessness and housing insecurity from publicly available sources and authorized data releases from private sources. SIROW will attempt to facilitate better sharing of currently siloed sensitive information between authorized community partners. Non-sensitive de-identified information will be housed in a publicly accessible data dashboard. In the process, we hope Let’s Measure Better will help foster the development of a significantly better local system for measuring homelessness and housing insecurity in the long term.

Contact: Keith Bentele keithb@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Keith Bentele, Claudia Powell, Tamara Sargus, Stephanie Murphy

Project partners: Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

Lighthouse Project team

SIROW's Lighthouse Project team

The Lighthouse Project is designed to link homeless, transitional age youth and young adults who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning and their Straight Allies (LGBTQ+) to a trauma-informed system of care that includes linkages to permanent supportive housing and primary health care, case management services, substance abuse and mental health treatment and a wide array of recovery support services. The University of Arizona-Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW), the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF) and CODAC Health, Recovery and Wellness will partner to serve LGBTQ+-identified, transitional age youth and young adults, including those who are veterans, in Southern Arizona, from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds, with a specific focus on those between the ages of 18 and 35 who are chronically homeless. The goals of this project are:

  1. to provide ongoing outreach to a minimum of 300 individuals annually and screening to a minimum of 100 LGBTQ+ homeless young adults each year,
  2. to annually enroll 60 individuals into needs-based, trauma-informed services, including case management, mental health and substance abuse treatment and recovery support services,
  3. to develop and implement a coordinated, comprehensive, trauma-informed System of Care for chronically homeless young adults that is sensitive to and focused on the specific needs of those who identify as LGBTQ+, and
  4. to evaluate all project activities to examine the impact of the intervention for participants and the longitudinal improvements to the System of Care.

Contact: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Claudia Powell, Courtney Waters, Shannon Fowler, Julie Luchetta, Jackson Wray, Keith Bentele

Project partners: Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF), CODAC Health, Recovery and Wellness

Location: SIROW Silverlake Park, 

Nuevo Camino

The overall purpose of Pima County Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program - Nuevo Camino is to enhance and expand a system of care providing comprehensive treatment, early intervention, and recovery support services for adolescents and transitional aged youth (ages 12-21) who have substance use disorders and/or co-occurring substance use and mental disorders and their families/primary caregivers. Substance use involved adolescents and their families will have access to system of care of substance use treatment, mental health treatment, tobacco prevention and cessation programming; healthy behavior-related skills education; and recovery support services, including community connections and referrals. Together, these components will support youth and their families in cultivating the information, motivation, and behavioral skills to plan for and pursue a substance free and healthy future.

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Josephine Korchmaros, Brenda Granillo, Fedora Preston-Haynes

Project partners: Intermountain Centers for Human Development, Community Partnership of Southern Arizona, Community Partners Integrated Healthcare, Pima County Juvenile Court Center

Location: SIROW Central, 3776 N. 1st Ave., STE. 102, Tucson, AZ 85719

PharmNet is a randomized cluster study to test a pharmacy-based intervention to reduce opioid misuse and overdose among pharmacy patients in Indiana. The project is based on years of feasibility research conducted by Meyerson and her team at Indiana University Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention (prior to coming to UofA in 2019). The project is a partnership with Indiana community harm reduction partner Indiana Recovery Alliance, local pharmacies and the Indiana Pharmacists Association. PharmNet is a multi-component intervention involving patient-driven opioid misuse and syringe use risk screening at the pharmacy, pharmacy consultation and service provision which may involve naloxone and syringe dispensing, and referral to community services for addiction treatment, health screening for HIV and HCV, and other services as required.

View publications:

Contact: Beth Meyerson, bmeyerson@arizona.edu

Project partners: Indiana University Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention, Indiana Recovery Alliance, Indiana Pharmacists Association, Indiana University School of Public Health, Eastern Carolina University, Williams Brothers Pharmacy in Indiana

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

Homeless Street Count Data Analysis and Methodology Project was developed to assist the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness, and specifically the Homeless Street Count Committee, to develop a plan to better determine the number of people experiencing homelessness in Pima County. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires communities that receive HUD funding to count all of the people who slept on the street or in a shelter on one specific night during the end of January. Teams of volunteers are trained and deployed across the county to determine the number of people who are currently homeless in our community. Because of the sheer size of Pima County, SIROW’s role in this project was to develop a methodology to categorize and sample different areas of the county and analyze the data of both sampled areas and areas where there was an attempt to interview every person experiencing homelessness in that sector.

Contact: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Claudia Powell, Corrie Brinley, Keith Bentele

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

Project Lifeline is a comprehensive suicide prevention strategy to reduce the incidence of suicide, suicide attempts, and their related risk factors such as alcohol and other drug (AOD) misuse/abuse among students at the UA with a special emphasis on high-risk student populations, such as LGBTQ students and veterans. In collaboration with a wide variety of campus and community partners, University of Arizona Campus Health Services’ and SIROW’s Project Lifeline addresses the following objectives:

  1. Increase collaboration among campus departments and the Tucson community to address student mental and behavioral health needs;
  2. Increase knowledge and willingness of students and campus personnel (gatekeepers) to respond effectively to students with mental health and behavioral health problems that can lead to school failure, such as depression, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts and attempts;
  3. Increase students who are screened and assessed for mental health and substance use disorders;
  4. Increase awareness of campus and community resources that can identify, assess, and treat mental health and behavioral health problems;
  5. Increase help seeking for mental health and behavioral health problems;
  6. Decrease suicide attempts and related risk factors;
  7. Institutionalize effective program components and disseminate information at local, state, and national levels.

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Josephine Korchmaros, Corrie Brinley

Project partners: University of Arizona Campus Health Services, University of Arizona Life & Works Connections

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

Pima County’s Community & Workforce Development Department has contracted UA researchers to provide research support and guidance on the Prosperity Initiative. The mandate of the Prosperity Initiative is to identify policies that have strong empirical evidence of being able to reduce child poverty and break cycles of intergeneration transmission of poverty.

 

Contact: Keith Bentele keithb@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Keith Bentele 

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

The overall purpose of Safe Haven is to enhance and expand access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) services for adults with an opioid use disorder (OUD) seeking or receiving MAT in Springfield, MA. Safe Haven will increase capacity and infrastructure to provide MAT and recovery support services (RSS) to adults with OUD seeking or receiving MAT, including to those of historically underserved groups, with an emphasis on Hispanic individuals including Spanish-speaking refugees and first generation immigrants. Safe Haven will also work to improve adult well-being, decrease opioid misuse and related risk behavior, and promote retention in services by providing comprehensive, evidence-based MAT and RSS to adults with OUD seeking or receiving MAT, with an emphasis on Hispanic individuals. The Safe Haven project team will utilize ongoing monitoring and evaluation of to inform ongoing quality improvement and to assess impact of the project on behavioral health disparities related to access, engagement, and retention in MAT; health-related treatment and services; substance use; mental health, as well as related outcomes, such as vocational engagement or development of social networks.

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Josephine Korchmaros, Brenda Granillo

Project partners: Caring Health Center, Springfield, MA

Location: SIROW Central 3776 N. 1st Ave., STE. 102, Tucson, AZ 85719

This project examines whether school gardens foster enduring resilience in the face of severe, dislocating challenges, such as experienced during the pandemic. The return-to-school provides a unique opportunity to collect ephemeral quantitative and qualitative data on whether access to a school garden, despite the vicissitudes experienced in learning and living during the previous school year’s COVID-19 quarantine, might help to build more resilient children and communities. This project is a quasi-experimental study with four elementary Title I schools that will determine the relationships between garden-based learning and resilience. We hypothesize that learning gardens in schools can produce significant positive effects on the development of resilience in children.

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Josephine Korchmaros, Corrie Brinley

Project partners: University of Arizona Community & School Garden Program

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

In response to the need to better understand the short- and long-term outcomes of day shelter programing for women experiencing homelessness, Penny Buckley, Sister Jose Women’s Center (SJWC) Program Manager, is collaborating with researchers at SIROW to engage in a pilot evaluation of SJWC services. The primary goals of the evaluation are to assess the quantity and duration of engagement in services, level of satisfaction in services, and impact of services in the lives of unaccompanied women experiencing homelessness. Findings will be utilized to enhance and expand services and develop a more rigorous evaluation.

Contact: Corrie Brinley, cbrinley@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Claudia Powell, Corrie Brinley

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

Terros Health Inc.’s Turning the Tide (T3) serves Hispanic/Latino and African American males ages 18-24 who are at high risk of HIV. Services are provided throughout Maricopa County, Arizona and will include outreach, testing, community education about substance use and HIV prevention and the delivery of Many Men, Many Voices (3MV). T3 also promotes increased coordination among providers to facilitate access to services and resources. Infection will be reduced by increasing knowledge about prevention and testing. Access to care is increased through coordinated and strategic internal and external procedures and increase advocacy related to health disparities. T3 contributes to the Coordinated National Response through strengthening relationships at the community, county, and state level. Activities include completion of a community needs assessment, outreach to engage individuals in testing, community education workshops about the relationship between substance use and HIV, information sharing at community events and the delivery of the evidence-based curriculum, Many Men, Many Voices. SIROW conducts the evaluation for the T3 project.

Contact: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Claudia Powell, Corrie Brinley,

Project partners: Terros Health Inc.

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

U-MATTER team

SIROW's U-MATTER project team

U-MATTER (Unified Medication Assisted Treatment Targeted Engagement Response) project is a coordinated effort of Pima County, Tucson Police Department, CODAC Health, Recovery, and Wellness, Inc. (CODAC), and SIROW. It is focused on identifying, engaging, and retaining individuals with opioid use disorder in comprehensive medication assisted treatment and recovery support services and facilitating these individuals’ long-term recovery. U-MATTER will enhance and expand access to medication assisted treatment services for adults in Pima County, AZ with an opioid use disorder by increasing capacity and infrastructure to:

  1. identify and connect adults with opioid use disorder who are appropriate for medication assisted treatment to existing comprehensive medication assisted treatment and related recovery support services; and
  2. provide ongoing peer support in the community to support retention and re-engagement in medication assisted treatment.

To reach these goals, U-MATTER will implement a law enforcement/ behavioral health co-located co-responder model to expand community outreach, screening, assessment, and active linkage to comprehensive medication assisted treatment and recovery support services.

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Josephine Korchmaros, Keith Bentele, Tamara Sargus, Fedora Preston-Haynes

Project partners: Pima County, CODAC Health, Recovery & Wellness, Inc., the Tucson Police Department, Pretrial Services of Arizona Superior Court in Pima County

Location: SIROW Central, 3776 N. 1st Ave., STE. 102, Tucson, AZ 85719

This HUD funded research is a collaboration with researchers at NAU and ASU. Over a three-year period, the project will provide critical evaluation of the effectiveness of select homeless encampment response strategies in three counties (Maricopa, Pima, & Yuma), incorporating the perspectives of people experiencing homelessness, service providers, and community leaders. A central goal of this project is to provide actionable and practical information to those working to address homelessness in cities with large unsheltered populations and in turn, to the unsheltered homeless population through improved service coordination and provision.

 

Contact: Keith Bentele keithb@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Keith Bentele 

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

Youth Care team

SIROW's Youth Care project team

Our Family Services Youth Care project aims to reduce youth homelessness by providing housing, navigation services, linkages to mental health and substance abuse treatment services. Youth Care is part the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project. The project focuses on youth homelessness with significant coordination and support to the Homeless Youth Coalition, Youth Action Committee, Homeless Youth Subcommittee, and youth-serving entities. SIROW’s role on Youth Care consists of participation in all YHDP initiatives, partnering with A Way Home America Grand Challenge leadership team, a timely completion of all activities outlined in the YHDP Coordinated Community Plan to Prevent and End Youth Homelessness and the AWHA Grand Challenge Aims and the facilitation and support youth participation in National Alliance to End Homelessness and A Way Home America Grand Challenge conferences/convenings.

Contact: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Claudia Powell, Shannon Fowler, Zach Simmons

Location: SIROW Silverlake Park, 

The SIROW Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project (YHDP) serves the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness which includes non-profit agencies, government entities, businesses, and community members experiencing homelessness. The project focuses on youth homelessness with significant coordination and support to the TPCH Collaborative Applicant, Youth Action Committee, Homeless Youth Subcommittee, and youth-serving entities. This project contributes to the planning requirements of the FY 2018 Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project planning grant including the development and implementation of a coordinated community plan to prevent and end youth homelessness and participation in the A Way Home America Grand Challenge initiative with key aims of:

  1. increasing youth voice and leadership within the local youth homelessness response system, and
  2. improving equity and opportunity as it is experienced by youth of color and LGBTQ+ youth.

SIROW’s role on the project is to provide administrative leadership and staffing to the Tucson/Pima County YHDP/AWHA Grand Challenge, participating in YHDP Operations Team and all YHDP initiatives, and to ensure timely completion of all activities outlined in the YHDP Coordinated Community Plan to Prevent and End Youth Homelessness and the AWHA Grand Challenge Aims.

Contact: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu

SIROW project team: Claudia Powell, Shannon Fowler, Julie Luchetta

Project partners: Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness

Location: SIROW Silverlake Park, 

Completed Projects

Completed projects are listed in alphabetical order.

Funded by SAMHSA-Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT); September 1, 2013-August 31, 2017

Contact: Alison Greene, greene@arizona.edu

Arizona’s Youth in Transition project in collaboration with ADHS/DBHS, SIROW, CPSA, Pima Prevention Partnership, and Compass-SAMHC Behavioral Health Care. The purpose of Arizona’s Youth in Transition project is to develop Arizona’s infrastructure and capacity to provide high quality services for youth who are ages 12-24 and who have substance use disorders or substance abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders. The project includes two components: a direct services component and a capacity building component. In the direct services component, youth in Pima County receive substance abuse treatment and recovery services which utilize the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA). Lessons learned from implementation of the project at the two local sites have been used to enhance service delivery in other areas of the state. In the capacity building component, Arizona is offering extensive statewide training for treatment providers in utilization of evidence based practices with adolescents and transition age youths. In addition, Arizona is enhancing its system of care plans to address the needs of adolescents and transition aged youth with substance use disorders. SIROW provides the state-level evaluation as well as a small component of the local evaluation.

Contact: Sally Stevens, sstevens@arizona.edu

CATS/FDC evaluated Pima County Juvenile Court Center’s (PCJCC’s) Court Assisted Treatment Services/Family Drug Court (CATS/FDC) program, which provided case management services to substance-involved families referred through Arizona Department of Economic Services (DES) Child Protective Services (CPS). The goals of the evaluation were to examine: 1) the number of CATS/FDC clients served over the three years of the grant, especially in relation to efficacy of service delivery; 2) changes in incidence of abuse of alcohol and other drugs by program participants; 3) variations in the rate of child-parent reunification for participants involved with CATS/FDC; and 4) ease and effectiveness, in terms of service delivery, of the new community collaborations. The main objective was to gather data measuring the effectiveness of community collaborations with the PCJCC and the quality of service of local agencies providing relapse prevention groups, detoxification and crisis beds, parenting training, transportation and visitation, and vocational assessment, training and placement. These service agencies included: CODAC Behavioral Health Services, Compass Health Care, Providence of Arizona, Inc., AVIVA Children’s Services, and a UA College of Agriculture program called Protection for Homemakers Seeking Employment (PHASE).  This evaluation was funded by a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration - Center for Substance Abuse Treatment grant awarded to PCJCC. 

Contact: Sally Stevens, sstevens@arizona.edu

The purpose of EMPACT was to evaluate the EMPACT-Suicide Prevention Center programs, primarily the Teen Substance Abuse Treatment Program (TSAT), that served adolescent substance users living in Phoenix, Arizona. The TSAT program was an intensive outpatient treatment program for substance abusing youth, most of who are referred from the criminal justice system. 150 adolescents were enrolled in this study over the 3-year project period with assessment points at baseline, 3, 6, 9, and 12-month post baseline. EMPACT was funded by EMPACT/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration - Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

The purpose of the EbTX Project was to: 1) test the efficacy of two evidence-based adolescent intervention models used in outpatient settings in Tucson, Arizona; and 2) conduct an extensive review of trauma-informed care. While there are several evidenced-based models being utilized in this geographic area, the two models included in this study were The Seven Challenges® (Schwebel, 2004) and the Matrix Model (Rawson et.al., 1995). These models have varying levels of evidence to support their respective efficacy on adolescent substance use outcomes. However, there is limited evidence about if and to what degree these models improve or do not improve 1) emotional health and 2) delinquency, crime, and juvenile justice related outcomes. EbTX Project intended to fill this knowledge gap. SIROW worked with the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona and two community-based treatment agencies to enroll, assess, and follow adolescents enrolled in these treatment approaches. In addition, given the lack of knowledge with regard to adolescents’ experiences of traumatic events, how these traumatic events are related to substance abuse and mental health issues, and approaches that may be promising in addressing trauma, EbTX Project included an extensive literature review on adolescent trauma and trauma-informed care. EbTX Project was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

Contact: Jo Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

Funded by D7 Treatment; March 1, 2016 – December 31, 2017

For Examination of the Effectiveness of The Seven Challenges for Adults, SIROW is partnering with D7 Treatment, a substance use treatment provider located in Idaho. The purpose of this project is to examine the effectiveness of The Seven Challenges, adapted for adults in order to build evidence for the model. To this end, they propose to conduct a quasi-experimental study to address two questions. The first is whether adult clients of The Seven Challenges improve their behavioral and mental health outcomes (e.g., recidivism; alcohol and other drug use; co-occurring issues) as a result of engaging in The Seven Challenges program. The second is whether the improvements in behavioral and mental health outcomes experienced by adult clients of D7 Treatment who engage in The Seven Challenges program are greater than those experienced by adult clients of D7 Treatment who engage in standard-of-care substance abuse treatment. Findings from this study will be used to inform the provision of substance use treatment locally at D7 Treatment. Moreover, it will be used to inform the field of substance use treatment regarding the effectiveness of The Seven Challenges and its potential to effectively address substance abuse problems within the broader population of adults across the nation suffering from these problems.

"Research Findings: View Publications"

 

 

Contact: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu

The purpose of the Pima County Family Drug Court (FDC) project was to improve outcomes for clients' including: graduation rates, completion of treatment, and family reunification. FDC provided treatment for trauma, improved clinical supervision, hired a Drug Court Coordinator, and increased awareness of the special needs of this population gained through cross-training.

SIROW’s previous evaluation of Pima County Family Drug Court identified many positive outcomes: 

  1. significantly higher rates of engagement in and completion of drug and alcohol treatment by drug court clients as compared to the general population of parents in the Child Protective Services (CPS) system, and
  2. higher rates of family reunification and less time to permanency for drug court clients’ children. 

With the support of key stakeholders from CPS and the local treatment community, FDC expanded from providing drug court services to clients from one zip code to the entire county and established a number of partnerships with local agencies to provide wraparound services to FDC clients. The purpose of the evaluation of FDC was to answer some of the questions that were left unanswered from the previous project (e.g., What services are most critical to clients? What is the level of client satisfaction? Why does Drug Court work for some but not for others?). This evaluation consisted of interviews with participants to determine their level of satisfaction and success as participants in FDC. FDC was funded by a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration - Center for Substance Abuse Treatment grant awarded to the Pima County Juvenile Court Center (PCJCC).

Contact: Keith Bentele, keithb@arizona.edu

Contact: Beth Meyerson, bmeyerson@arizona.edu

This project was a harm reduction attitude and practices statewide survey directed toward managing pharmacists in Arizona community pharmacies (chain, independent, food store, mass merchandiser) to assess current attitudes and pharmacy practices related to selected harm reduction topics: naloxone stocking and dispensing, syringe dispensing, PrEP consultation and dispensing, view of current pharmacy laws related to opioid use reduction, perception of pharmacy role in the opioid crisis, and feasibility of a multi-component pharmacy-based intervention to improve community health. Findings from the study informed the development of multi-level pharmacy/community-based harm reduction interventions.

View publications:

Contact: Rosi Andrade, rosia@arizona.edu

A needs assessment and support project for homeless women living in Pima County.

Contact: Rosi Andrade, rosia@arizona.edu

A project to promote social inclusion and well-being of chronically homeless women.   

As a component of participation in Pima County’s Task Force on Preventing Evictions and Homelessness, which convened in the Fall of 2020, SIROW began providing updated reports on levels of housing insecurity and potential homelessness in both Arizona and Pima County. These reports relied on data from the Census Household Pulse Survey experimental data series, which released new data every two weeks through April 2021. In total, 28 reports have been released to date providing near real-time (within two weeks) information on levels of housing insecurity and financial strain amongst households in Arizona during the pandemic and pandemic-induced recession. These reports have been used by local government agencies and non-profit organizations to both gauge the local level of financial strain and to advocate for extensions to eviction moratoriums and expanded support for struggling renters.

Contact: Keith Bentele, keithb@arizona.edu

Contacts: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu; Sally Stevens, sstevens@arizona.edu

UA-SIROW was working with Our Family Services, Open Inn, Wingspan, CODAC Behavioral Health Services (CODAC), and the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF) to develop and implement “Treatment Empowerment for Adolescents on the Move” (iTEAM); a comprehensive Systems approach for drug/alcohol and mental health treatment for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth (LGBTQ) and their straight allies. Homeless youth, ages 15 to 23, from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds were enrolled in the project.

iTEAM Links

  • LGBTQQ Individuals in AZ: iTEAM Project (Adolescents & Young Adults) General Demographics
  • LGBTQQ Individuals in AZ: iTEAM Project (Adolescents & Young Adults) Harassment and Abuse
  • LGBTQQ Individuals in AZ: iTEAM Project (Adolescents & Young Adults) Social Support

View an iTEAM Community Collaboration poster, Unstably Housed LGBTQA Youth: The Impact of a Community-Based Collaboration.

Read the article about the iTEAM project from University of Arizona News, "UA-Led iTEAM Project Benefits Youth, Young Adults."

Contact: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu

Ili Uusim Hiapsi promotes the wellness of tribal children from birth to eight years of age by supporting their physical, social, emotional, thinking and behavioral development. It works to create a shared vision with parents and caregivers for the health and happiness of young children. This SAMHSA grant will work to educate families and caregivers about ages and stages of early development and will supply hands-on activities that encourage fun and learning. We will share tools and tips for smooth parenting as well as provide optional screenings that identify children’s strengths. The screenings and auxiliary activates are to assist families with small children on their child and families continued growth.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please feel free to contact Ili Uusim Hiapsi staff at (520) 879-6181. 

Contact: Sally Stevens, sstevens@arizona.edu

The Joint Meeting for Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE) was a biannual meeting that began in 2005 through the leadership of the Society for Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Effectiveness (SASATE), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), National Institute on Drug Abuse Treatment (NIDA), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and several private foundations and providers. The original purpose of JMATE was to bring diverse constituencies together in order to share/exchange information with one primary goal: improving and promoting adolescent substance abuse treatment. Given the caliber of speakers, content, and effective approach, JMATE has become a premier meeting that well attended by experts in the field. For the past two JMATE conferences, SIROW was asked to lead the development and execution of the meeting. Dr. Sally Stevens was the JMATE Chair in 2008 funded by Westat, and Ms. Bridget Ruiz was the Chair for 2010 funded by JBS International via a contract from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration - Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

Contact: Sally Stevens, sstevens@arizona.edu

The purpose of this project was to examine the differential effectiveness of three promising treatment programs for drug using, criminally involved youth. The final sample size was 292 youths with 70% male and all between the ages of 12 and 17 years. Baseline (intake) data indicates significant drug use, criminal involvement, mental health issues, family and school problems as well as extensive environmental stress and trauma (i.e., involvement in drive-by shootings, having a friend die violently). Outcome data indicates reductions in substance use, mental health issues, and other related negative behaviors. Several publications with regard to project findings as well as a treatment replication manual are currently available for dissemination. This three-year study was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration - Center of Substance Abuse Treatment

Contact: Alison Greene, greene@arizona.edu

Las Rosas Emergency Support Funds was a supporting project to Las Rosas. Las Rosas served adolescent girls in Southern Arizona by providing recovery support following substance abuse treatment. During this six-month period of recovery support, many of the enrolled girls experienced major life transitions. This small grant funds items not covered by the federal grant that are necessary for girls to smoothly transition into their new life (e.g., personal clothing, personal hygiene items, and transportation). Las Rosas Emergency Support Funds assisted 35 girls and helped meet education, employment, and health needs in order to improve their overall well-being. Las Rosas Emergency Support Funds was funded by the UA Commission on the Status of Women.

Contact: Jo Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu
Funded by the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) ; January 1, 2014–December 31, 2017

This study explores how medication adherence, a widespread problem in primary care, is shaped by structural, social and individual factors. Building on our previous research, the current study combines qualitative and quantitative methods to examine health literacy and barriers to medication adherence among urban, minority and medically underserved patients. Massachusetts, a leader in health insurance reform, provides a unique research setting for this study as the state has recently expanded the number of people insured under publicly-funded programs while implementing cost-control measures that may negatively affect access to prescription medications, especially for low-income people. Improved understanding of the complex relationships among health literacy, culturally-variable health beliefs, and structural and socioeconomic factors will better prepare primary health care providers to improve adherence and support patients’ chronic disease self-management.

Contact: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu

Contact: Monica Davis, midavis@arizona.edu

This project is a multi-site national evaluation of the Juvenile Drug Court and Reclaiming Futures Initiative (JDC/RF) to improve the effectiveness and efficacy of juvenile drug courts. The initiative is aimed at rehabilitating nonviolent, substance-abusing youth by integrating two models, the Juvenile Drug Court: Strategies in Practice and the Reclaiming Futures models. We are implementing a cross-site evaluation plan with both quantitative and qualitative methods inclusive of process, outcome, and cost-effectiveness analyses that will provide a comprehensive and robust evaluation of the JDC/RF initiative to identify the factors, elements, and services that perform best with respect to outcomes and cost-effectiveness. This project is funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) through an interagency agreement with the Library of Congress.

Integration of the Juvenile Drug Court and Reclaiming Futures Models

The JDC/RF evaluation team seeks to examine what processes lead to effective integration of the two models. This requires an understanding of the problems the two models seek to address, the goals and objectives of integration, and the key activities and output and outcome measures which can be used to measure successful model integration.

The following links include the Integrated Logic Model as well as presentations focusing on program integration:

Cost Analysis and Program Evaluation

The successful integration of the two models into existing systems of care can be challenging. It is important to measure program performance along the way to ensure that the needs of the target population are being met in the most cost effective manner.

Watch the video, Economic Evaluation of the Juvenile Drug Court/Reclaiming Futures Model.

The following presentations from the National Cross-Site Evaluation focus on cost analysis and program evaluation.

Clients of Juvenile Drug Court/Reclaiming Futures Programs

The JDC/RF Evaluation Team collects a variety of data on the clients served by these juvenile drug court programs. These data are analyzed to determine a broad range of the characteristics of the clients being served, the activities clients regularly engage in, the resources available and utilized in the local community, and services clients receive as a result of program participation. The following links are reports from the National Cross-Site Evaluation on these data:

Individuals or Personnel Working With Juvenile Drug Court/Reclaiming Futures Programs

The JDC/RF Evaluation Team also collects a variety of data on the individuals directly employed by and working closely with the juvenile drug court programs. These data are analyzed to determine how staff are trained to provide service to youth and integrate the two models, as well as how the programs are perceived in the local professional community. The following links are reports from the National Cross-Site Evaluation on these data:

Policy Briefs from the National Cross-Site Evaluation of Juvenile Drug Courts and Reclaiming Futures

Publications from the National Cross-Site Evaluation

Other National Cross-Site Evaluation Research

In a presentation, Dr. Rodney Haring (Seneca Nation), a member of the JDC/RF qualitative analysis team, discusses what researchers and treatment providers should consider when working with Native Americans, including historical environmental influences, confidentiality, tribal differences and styles of communication.

Watch the presentation, Learning from Our Animal Colleagues: Diverse Perspectives for Working with Native Peoples and Communities.

Final Report

Acknowledgements

SIROW wishes to acknowledge the contributions of the evaluation sites and the evaluation partners, Chestnut Health Systems and Carnevale Associates LLC to this National Cross-Site Evaluation.  In addition, SIROW is appreciative of support from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Reclaiming Futures National Program Office, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

Contact: Claudia Powell, claudiap@arizona.edu

The PYTEP is a treatment system expansion project for Pascua Yaqui adolescents aged 9 to 21 years old. The project will reach out and develop a coordinated network for clinical and primary prevention services based on evidence based approaches in the specific target populations. The project will expand the service approach of the current Sewa Uusim System of Care project by providing a sustainable network of care across all tribal departments and services child focused, family guided, culturally appropriate services from primary care though trauma/substance abuse recovery programs. The three main goals of the PYTEP:

  • Goal 1: To utilize a system of care model to develop and strengthen community and culturally based services to Yaqui children and families using equine, recovery and parenting and trauma focused services.
  • Goal 2: To increase sustainability efforts, including financial planning, social marketing and enhanced client data measures and analysis to enhance decision making related to systems of care program services.
  • Goal 3: To integrate systems of care principles into the existing tribal wide network or providers capable of providing Systems of Care (SOC) informed and trauma focused services, enhancing infrastructure and training opportunities.

Contact: Keith Bentele, keithb@arizona.edu

A project to assess the extent of financial strain and rental debts experienced by landlords in Pima County, to inquire about their responses to missed payments and knowledge of available supports, and to provide useful information to landlords to, ideally, help mitigate these strains.

Contact: Keith Bentele, keithb@arizona.edu

Location: SIROW Main campus, 925 N Tyndall Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721

March 4, 2015- January 27, 2020

Contact: Sally Stevens, sstevens@arizona.edu

Pregnant/Postpartum Women and Adolescent /Young Adult Substance Abuse National Cross-site Evaluation, is collaboration between Research Triangle International (RTI) (lead agency), Health & Education Research, Management, & Epidemiologic Services (HERMES), and SIROW. This national evaluation includes three of SAMHSA’s initiatives:

  1. Services Grant Program for Residential Treatment for Pregnant and Postpartum Women (PPW);
  2. State Adolescent Treatment Enhancement and Dissemination (SAT-ED); and
  3. Cooperative Agreements for State Adolescent and Transitional Aged Youth Treatment Enhancement and Dissemination (SYT).

Through a multi-site, multi-component, 5-year project, this evaluation addresses 10 tasks:

  1. Communication and development of evaluation plan of performance and coordination plan;
  2. Office of Management and Budget clearance;
  3. Evaluation technical assistance for PPW grantees;
  4. Evaluation technical assistance for SAT-ED and SYT grantees;
  5. Cross-site analysis of SAT-ED and SYT grantees;
  6. Support analyses of PPW quarterly data collections and local evaluations;
  7. Special report on pregnant and postpartum women and their families;
  8. Routine reporting for SAT-ED and SYT;
  9. Project tracking system, and
  10. Final Reports and debriefings.

Findings from this evaluation will contribute to the knowledge base about best practices and lessons learned from the PPW, SAT-ED, and SYT programs, which will advance the field as they are applied in other treatment modalities and to other settings where pregnant and post-partum women and transitional-aged youth receive services. The findings from this evaluation will be broadly disseminated through multiple venues.

Contact: Sally Stevens, sstevens@arizona.edu

This project was a collaboration between UA Campus Health Service and SIROW. Project CHAT (Campus Health Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment) was aimed at increasing alcohol and other drug treatment within a university health services center through:

  1. brief screening;
  2. brief intervention and referral by CHS providers; and
  3. increased provision of more intensive screening, intervention and referral for treatment. 

UA Campus Health Service conducted a two-session intervention utilizing the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) protocol. SIROW evaluators collected data on:

  1. increased number of providers using motivational interviewing to provide a brief intervention;
  2. increased referrals to treatment by providers and self-referral from baseline through implementation;
  3. increased student referrals who enter treatment (including BASICS); and
  4. individual reductions in alcohol and other drug use and related problems among students receiving BASICS or other treatment through the Project CHAT, measured through baseline and 3, and 6-month follow-up surveys.  

Project CHAT enrolled 390 students over the three-year project span. Project CHAT was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration - Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. 

Contact: Sally Stevens, sstevens@arizona.edu

This project was a collaboration between UA Campus Health Service and SIROW. The aim of Project SAFE was to integrate individual and environmental strategies to prevent high-risk drinking among first-year students. Through baseline, discharge, and 3-month follow-up surveys, SIROW evaluated how reductions in high-risk drinking may be achieved by:

  1. providing mandatory online screening and immediate personal feedback to all incoming freshmen;
  2. testing the efficacy of an online vs. class diversion program for students with alcohol infractions;
  3. providing cognitive-behavioral skills training, norms clarification and motivational enhancement to students receiving a second alcohol infraction;
  4. correcting misperceptions of UA student alcohol and other drug use and behavioral norms through a campus-wide social norms media campaign;
  5. increasing knowledge about alcohol related policies, laws and safer consumption;
  6. limiting access and availability of alcohol to all first-year and underage students through law enforcement and community partnerships; and
  7. disseminating findings through meetings and publications.  

Project SAFE was funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Contact: Alison Greene, greene@arizona.edu

SIROW, in collaboration with Compass Health Care (CHC), implemented an outpatient treatment program for adolescents and their caregivers that used the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (ACRA) as well as the Assertive Continuing Care (ACC) models of treatment and continuing care. Las Mariposas identified, motivated, engaged, and treated youth and caregivers over three years. The primary purpose of Las Mariposas was to increase capacity for adolescent substance abuse treatment as well as provide a continuum of care using the proven effective models of ACRA and ACC. To accomplish this, Las Mariposas: 1) utilized the youth led theatrical group, Clean and Sober Theater (CAST) to assist with identification, motivation, and recruitment of adolescents in need of treatment; 2) participated in trainings and ongoing fidelity monitoring to ensure that that well-implemented, evidence based services were provided to youth and their caregivers; and 3) conducted a process and outcome evaluation so that evidence about ACRA and ACC’s effectiveness were examined within a culturally diverse population in the Southwestern United States. A participatory process was incorporated into each component of Las Mariposas so that adolescents and their caregivers, clinical staff, and evaluation staff were provided opportunities to provide recommendations for improvements and preservations within each component (recruitment, clinical, and evaluation). Las Mariposas was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration - Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

An action-based project providing substance abuse continuing care for adolescents and their families referred from Tucson and Sierra Vista communities and K-12 schools.

Contact: Josephine Korchmaros, jkorch@arizona.edu

The major goal of this project was to analyze, interpret, and disseminate project outcome findings from an evaluation of Providence Service Corporation’s The Seven Challenges outpatient adolescent outpatient substance abuse treatment program. Data collection protocols had previously been developed by SIROW to be used at the Providence site and project personnel collected the data over a two-year period of time. SIROW were awarded these funds to analyze the data and disseminate the findings, including the writing of an article to be published in an academic journal. This project was funded by The Seven Challenges, Inc.

Contact: Sally Stevens, sstevens@arizona.edu

Step Forward I’s goals were to establish an infrastructure for substance abuse services which provide a coordinated continuum of care to effectively intervene with substance abusing youth and their families throughout Pima County, Arizona. The evaluation had two main components: a process and outcome evaluation. Youth were assessed at baseline on a number of variables (e.g. criminality, substance use, mental health) and were followed after treatment every three months out to one year. In addition, Step Forward I examined policy implications with regard to a system of care for adolescent substance abuse treatment. Step Forward I was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration - Center of Substance Abuse Treatment through a subcontract with CODAC Behavioral Health Services.

Contact: Alison Greene, greene@arizona.edu; Tamara Sargus, tsargus@arizona.edu

The Volunteer Telephone Continuing Care (VTCC) project is a NIH-NIAAA funded project examining the effectiveness of delivering volunteer telephone continuing care services to adolescents transitioning out of residential substance abuse treatment. Adolescents who participate in the project will be randomly assigned to either usual continuing care (UCC) (e.g., referrals to outpatient services) or UCC plus Volunteer Telephone Continuing Care (VTCC). VTCC is delivered by trained volunteers who initiate and maintain a schedule of supportive contact through telecommunication for 9 months post-discharge. SIROW (one of three sites participating in this study) is partnering with local agencies to enroll adolescents who qualify. The aims of this study are to: 1) evaluate the main effect of VTCC on changes over time on improving pro-recovery peers and activities, decreasing alcohol and other drug (AOD) frequency of use, and AOD-related problems during the 12 months post-discharge; 2) evaluate the extent to which changes in pro-recovery peers and activities mediate the effects of VTCC on changes in AOD use and AOD-related problems over 12 months; and 3) evaluate the extent to which treatment readiness at baseline moderates the main effects of VTCC on changes in pro-recovery peers and activities, AOD frequency of use, and AOD-related problems at month 12.

View the Tucson's Youth VTCC Resource Guide.

Contact: Rosi Andrade, rosia@arizona.edu

MOMs implemented a comprehensive, gender specific, and culturally competent residential substance abuse treatment, prevention, and recovery support service project for pregnant and postpartum women and their minor children, including their non-residential family members. MOMs targeted pregnant or postpartum working women living below the poverty rate who were in need of residential substance abuse treatment and who did not qualify for state-funded health care/drug treatment. MOMs was unique in that it served an unmet need in providing affordable flexible residential substance abuse treatment for working poor women while the women continue to work, and therapeutic services for their children as well as for the women’s non-residential family members. MOMs was expected to serve 126 women, 214 children, and 189 family members not in treatment (e.g., partners, fathers of children, or other relevant family members). MOMs collaborators included SIROW, The Haven Women’s Residential Drug Treatment program, Arizona’s Children Association, Compass Affordable Housing, and the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona. MOMs was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.