AddictionTechnologyTransferCenter Network

National Institute on Drug Abuse Initiative

Quarterly Report

July - September 2007

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

National Office

Pacific Southwest

Central East

Southern Coast ATTC

Mid-America

Gulf Coast

Mountain West

Mid-Atlantic

Caribbean Basin & Hispanic

Northwest Frontier

Southeast ATTC

New England

Great Lakes

Prairielands

Northeast

Executive Summary

The Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network is in its fifth year of supplemental funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment for the NIDA Initiative. The ATTC Network utilizes these funds to disseminate and promote NIDA research-based protocols to addictions treatment, public/mental health personnel, institutional and community corrections professionals, and other related disciplines through NIDA/SAMHSA-ATTC Blending Teams. The purpose is to assist those working with individuals and families impacted by substance use disorders to maximize treatment efforts by adopting research to fit their system of care. This document includes an executive summary of the NIDA-related activities of the fourteen ATTCRegionalCenters and the National Office. For a detailed report of these activities, please refer to the individual Quarterly Reports from the RegionalCenters and the National Office.

Introduction

NIDA and CSAT convened five separate Blending Teams to accomplish the goals of the NIDA Initiative as follows: Buprenorphine Treatment: A Training for Multidisciplinary Addiction Professionals (Buprenorphine Treatment), Treatment Planning MATRS: Utilizing the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) to Make Data Collection Useful (Treatment Planning), Motivational Interviewing Assessment: Supervisory Tools for Enhancing Proficiency (MIA: STEP), Short-Term Opioid Withdrawal Using Buprenorphine: Findings and Strategies from a NIDA Clinical Trials Network Study (Buprenorphine Detoxification) and Promoting Awareness of Motivational Incentives (PAMI). All ATTC Regional Centers participated on one of the five Blending Teams. Now that all the products are developed, the ATTC Network is concentrating on disseminating the Blending packages. Although the National Office was not directly a part of any Blending Team, as the coordinating center of the ATTC Network, it facilitated the efforts of all five Blending Teams and continues to develop special projects, such as The Training Point, which support the Initiative as a whole.

Blending Team Packages

Blending Team / Products in Package as of September 2007
Buprenorphine Treatment /
  • 6-hour classroom training including a training manual, PowerPoint slides, and the short movie, “Put Your Smack Down! A Video About Buprenorphine”
  • Self-paced CD-ROM awareness course on buprenorphine treatment
  • Annotated bibliography and research articles

Treatment Planning /
  • 6-hour classroom training program including a trainer script and notes, PowerPoint slides, handouts, and a reference list
  • 4-week online course based on the classroom training
  • Curriculum infusion package for addiction studies educators

MIA: STEP /
  • Overview of MIA:STEP for ATTC Network
  • Briefing Materials for announcing availability of the package, an executive summary, overview of the toolkit, talking points,and an interview with an agency treatment director
  • Description of the MI Assessment
  • Results of the NIDA Clinical Trials on MIA
  • Supervisory Teaching Tools
  • Self-Assessment Skill Summaries
  • Supervisor Tape Rating Guide and Forms
  • Transcripts andRatings of Standardized Tapes in English and Spanish
  • Training Curricula for Preparing Supervisors to Use MIA:STEP

Buprenorphine Detoxification /
  • 4-hour classroom training program including PowerPoint slides and a CD

PAMI /
  • Brief video demonstrating effective Motivational Incentives in practice
  • PowerPoint slides
  • Trainers toolkit
  • Collection of research articles
  • Marketing resources

Product Dissemination

All Blending Teams have products currently in dissemination. During the reporting period, the MIA:STEP Team, in collaboration with the National Office, held a second training-of-trainers event on its package. Feedback from the post-event performance monitoring forms indicated that the participants were satisfied with the event overall. In addition, the National Office began discussions with the PAMI Team for its first TOT. Please see the charts beginning on page 6 for a summary of all of the ATTC dissemination efforts.

The Network anticipates an influx of requests for Blending Initiative products. During this reporting period, the National Office maintained the NIDA Dissemination Tracking database. This web-based database, which is hosted on the Network intranet site, tracks ATTC dissemination efforts and helps the Network monitor our capacity to meet demand for Blending Initiative packages. The National Office makes various reports based on the data entered into the tracking system available to the Network, CSAT and NIDA. For example, the National Office used the data from this database in order to create a map which shows the states in which Blending events of 3 hours or more have occurred.

In addition to disseminating the actual Blending Team products, the ATTC Network draws on its expertise in technology transfer to extend the reach of the Blending Initiative by re-packaging the approved information and materials in creative and innovative ways. For example, Michael Flaherty of the Northeast ATTC continued his work with the Pennsylvania State Department of Health and providers across the State to address Buprenorphine adoption and regulatory barriers. Buprenorphine materials (including NIDA products) were shared at the meetings as ideas for resources to support later training and implementation of strategies to deal with opioid addiction.

CTN and other Infrastructure Activities

Regional Centers also work to build and maintain lines of communication with CTN Nodes and NIDA researchers. All but four of the Regional Centers have CTN Nodes in their region. Those Regional Centers with a CTN Node participate in regular conference calls and meetings with representatives from their regional Nodes, and sit on CTN workgroups and committees. For example, representatives from the Central East ATTC attended the Mid-Atlantic CTN Node’s semi-annual RRTC meeting with Clinical Treatment Providers (CTPs) to discuss current and future plans for collaboration. In addition, Daniel Squires of the New England ATTC has become a co-investigator for the Northern New England Node of the CTN, and is a member of both the dissemination workgroup and the executive committee. Dr. Squires will be coordinating Blending Team trainings directly with the NNEN of the CTN, which has 5 of the 6 New England states within its jurisdiction. Those Regional Centers without CTN Nodes in their regions have created linkages with NIDA-funded researchers in their regions; for some Regional Centers these linkages have grown into dynamic relationships.

The Network has also found the need to prime the field on the evidence based practices presented in the Blending packages before actually disseminating the official products. Several Regional Centers have had to hold trainings on Blending topics, such as motivational interviewing. Developing this infrastructure will set the appropriate context for introducing the Blending packages. For example, the Mountain West ATTC has planned for two ASI 101 applications courses for Billings and Missoula, MT in October 2007 to supplement the Treatment Planning M.A.T.R.S. Blending Initiative.

Finally, ATTC Regional Centers are key partners with NIDA in support of NIDA’s Blending Conferences. In the past, the Southern Coast and Northwest Frontier ATTCs have helped NIDA with these conferences. The Great Lakes ATTC will be working with the Ohio Valley CTN as they host the 2008 Blending Conference in Cincinnati, OH.

ATTC Network Blending Initiative Dissemination Efforts by Blending Package

Official Blending Product Dissemination
Package / Description of the Dissemination Effort
Multi-media Resources / Printed Materials / Dissemination of Materials Electronically / Trainings and Presentations / Other / Total
Buprenorphine Treatment / 5 / 58 / 0 / 43 / 6 / 112
Buprenorphine Detoxification / 1 / 52 / 2 / 6 / 2 / 63
Buprenorphine Treatment & Buprenorphine Detoxification together / 6 / 20 / 0 / 21 / 14 / 61
Treatment Planning MATRS / 3 / 85 / 10 / 87 / 27 / 212
MI Assessment / 6 / 71 / 1 / 31 / 8 / 117
PAMI / 6 / 42 / 1 / 39 / 19 / 107
Total / 27 / 328 / 14 / 227 / 76 / 672
ATTC Developed Supplementary Products Dissemination
Package / Description of the Dissemination Effort
Multi-media Resources / Printed Materials / Curriculum Products / Dissemination of Materials Electronically / Trainings and Presentations / Other / Total
Buprenorphine Treatment / 3 / 3 / 3 / 0 / 3 / 1 / 13
Buprenorphine Detoxification / 1 / 3 / 6 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 11
Buprenorphine Treatment & Buprenorphine Detoxification together / 0 / 8 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 6 / 15
Treatment Planning MATRS / 1 / 12 / 13 / 15 / 10 / 18 / 69
MI Assessment / 3 / 15 / 13 / 9 / 12 / 14 / 66
PAMI / 0 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 3 / 11 / 16
Total / 8 / 42 / 35 / 26 / 29 / 50 / 190

ATTC Network Blending Initiative Dissemination Efforts by RegionalCenter

RegionalCenter / Total # of Official Product Dissemination Efforts* / Total # of ATTC Supplementary Product Dissemination Efforts*
ATTC of New England / 52 / 0
CBHATTC / 58 / 82
Central East / 16 / 7
Great Lakes / 13 / 3
GulfCoast / 17 / 0
Mid-America / 26 / 8
Mid-Atlantic / 25 / 16
Mountain West / 83 / 23
Northeast / 44 / 2
Northwest Frontier / 6 / 6
Pacific Southwest / 23 / 4
Prairielands / 146 / 29
Southeast / 22 / 0
Southern Coast / 141 / 10
Total / 672 / 190

*Please Note: Disparity among Regional Centers in terms of number of dissemination efforts is due in part to the way each RegionalCenter has interpreted the definition of a “dissemination effort” such that some Regional Centers may report items that others do not.

National Office

1. Blending Team Activities:

  • While the National Office is not directly a part of any Blending Team, as the coordinating center of the ATTC Network it strives to facilitate the efforts of all five Blending Teams. Mary Beth Johnson, MSW, Director of the National Office, participates in the ATTC NIDA Initiative Workgroup.
  • The National Office engaged in email correspondence and phone calls with the CSAT Project Officer regarding ways to revise the NIDA quarterly reports to make them more useful for NIDA, CSAT and the RegionalCenters.
  • NIDA has requested that the National Office include an United States map displaying where the ATTC Network has delivered Blending Initiatives events of three or more hours each quarter. During this reporting period, the National Office researched how to produce such a map and the possibility of linking the map electronically to the dissemination tracking database.

2. Dissemination ActivitiesRelated to Blending Team Product/Packages:

  • During this reporting period, the National Office maintained the NIDA Dissemination Tracking database. This web-based database, which is hosted on the Network intranet site, tracks ATTC dissemination efforts and helps the Network monitor our capacity to meet demand for Blending Initiative packages. The National Office makes various reports based on the data entered into the tracking system available to the Network, CSAT and NIDA. For example, the dissemination data found in the Executive Summary for this reporting period was drawn from the tracking system.
  • The National Office planned the logistics for the MIA:STEP Training-of-Trainers (TOT) event that was held as part of the roll-out of that Blending package in May in Kansas City. The National Office secured the meeting space and hotel room block and made other logistical arrangements. The National Office paid for all of the travel expenses for the TOT trainers and provided on-site support for the training.
  • The National Office is also in the planning stages for another MIA:STEP TOT and a PAMI TOT to be held in the near future. The National Office is working with the Blending Teams to put together the logistical arrangements for those events.

3.CTN andOtherInfrastructureActivities:

Training

  • Treatment providers will be more likely to understand and adopt NIDA research-based practices if they are trained on those practices by an experienced trainer using research grounded educational techniques. Therefore, as part of the Blending Initiative, the National Office developed the curriculum, The Training Point: an uncommon learning exchange for addiction trainers to ensure that trainers of Blending Team packages utilize adult learning principles to present and facilitate quality trainings. The National Office and RegionalCenters encourage attendees of Blending Initiative TOTs to take the course.
  • The Training Point has been extremely successful. As a result, the National Office is now consulting with several Regional Centers to roll out the curriculum to the Network. The Northeast ATTC held the course in May and June, 2007. The National Office provided logistical support, the online learning system, and a “master trainer” mentor for this regional roll out.

Cyber Media

  • The National Office maintains an electronic discussion list for those members of the ATTC Network that participate in the ATTC Blending Initiative Workgroup.
  • The ATTC Network Web site ( which is maintained by the National Office, continues to highlight the NIDA/SAMHSA-ATTC Blending Initiative under the “About Us” section. The section offers a thorough description of the Blending Initiative as a whole, as well as more comprehensive descriptions of each Blending Team. It also offers the ability to download portions of the packages that have been released to the public.
  • The National Office maintains the NIDA/SAMHSA-ATTC Blending Initiative Web page on the Network Intranet site. Minutes to all NIDA Initiative meetings and conference calls are posted on this Web page so that they are available to the ATTC Network and CSAT. Also, the National Office continues to maintain the NIDA Initiative reports on the Network Intranet site so that they are available to the ATTC Network, CSAT and NIDA.
  • The National Office includes Blending Team updates in its weekly electronic internal bulletin, kNOw Notes.

Pacific Southwest

1. Blending Team Activities

Buprenorphine Treatment: A Training for Multidisciplinary Addiction Professionals (a.k.a. Buprenorphine Awareness)

  • Thomas Freese (Chair) and Beth Rutkowski (Member) represent the PSATTC.
  • A restructuring of the Buprenorphine Awareness blending package (to include the Buprenorphine Detox product as an additional module) has begun and should be finalized by fall 2007.

Short-Term Opioid Withdrawal Using Buprenorphine: Findings and Strategies from a NIDA Clinical Trials Network Study (a.k.a. Buprenorphine Detox)

  • Thomas Freese (Chair) and Beth Rutkowski (Member) represent the PSATTC.

2. Dissemination of Blending Team Products

Official Product Trainings Held During this Reporting Period

Package / Duration / # of attendees / Date / Location / Co-sponsors/
Other Organiza-tions Involved / CTN included? (Explain)
Buprenorphine Treatment AND Short-Term Opioid Withdrawal Using Buprenorphine
(EVENT #5234 ) / 3 hours / 28 / July 27-28, 2007 / Newark, DE / Delaware Dept. of Health and Social Services, Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health / No

Official Product Trainings Planned During this Reporting Period

Package / Planned Date / Planned Location / Co-sponsors/
Other Organiza-tions Involved / Comments
Treatment Planning M.A.T.R.S.
(EVENT #5067 ) / Fall 2007 / Los Angeles, CA / BAART / A participating CTP in the Pacific Region of the CTN
Treatment Planning M.A.T.R.S.
(EVENT #5077) / Fall 2007 / Sacramento, CA / CAARR and
CA ADP / This event will be a TOT to train TA Providers funded by CAARR
MI Assessment: Supervisory Tools for Enhancing Proficiency
(EVENT #169) / September 24, and October 1 and 11, 2007 (7 hours per training) / Apache Junction, AZ / AZ Dept of Behavioral Health Services / See **note included below for more information
MI Assessment: Supervisory Tools for Enhancing Proficiency
(EVENT #481) / September 27, and October 4 and 10, 2007 (7 hours per training) / Yuma, AZ / AZ Dept of Behavioral Health Services / See **note included below for more information
MI Assessment: Supervisory Tools for Enhancing Proficiency
(EVENT #482) / October 12, 19, and 26, 2007 (7 hours per training) / Flagstaff, AZ / AZ Dept of Behavioral Health Services / See **note included below for more information

**As part of an ongoing collaboration with the AZ Department of Behavioral Health Services, the PSATTC is providing a statewide training cycle in Motivational Interviewing (MI) to clinical supervisors. Adolescent treatment program supervisors in three rural locations throughout Arizona are attending a series of three one-day seminars on MI theory, practice, and supervision. Each cohort will receive a total of 21 hours of training. The three-part training series will be followed by a three-month assessment and mentoring period (where training participants will submit videotapes for scoring/feedback and participate in a series of technical assistance conference calls). The curriculum for the MI training cycle has been heavily infused with materials from the MIA: STEP blending package (at least 3 hours of each training series will include MIA:STEP content). Additional details are available in the PSATTC’s April-June 2007 NIDA quarterly report.

Other Dissemination Activities

  • Informational brochures for each of the Blending Team products are a standard component of the PSATTC display table, and are disseminated at all events in which the PSATTC display is featured.
  • During fall 2007, the PSATTC will distribute approximately 150 Treatment Planning M.A.T.R.S.Curriculum Infusion Packages (CIPs; developed by MWATTC) to addiction educators working in CA. The PSATTC is waiting for MWATTC staff to make revisions to the CIPs and get them ready for distribution(event #95).

3. CTN and Other Infrastructure Activities

Trainings/Technical Assistance
  • On July 5, 2007 in Los Angeles, CA, Mark Oyama conducted Addiction Severity Index (ASI), Risk Behavior Survey (RBS), and Biomeasures training for four (4) CTN-affiliated staff.
  • On July 10, 2007 in Los Angeles, CA, Thomas Freese presented a 4-hourGood Research Practice/Good Clinical Practice (GRP/GCP) Full Training. Sixteen individuals participated in the training.
  • On July 15, 2007 in Honolulu, HI, Thomas Freese presented a 4-hour Good Research Practice/Good Clinical Practice (GRP/GCP) training for 75 staff affiliated with the multi-site NIDA/VA Modafinil Study.
  • On July 15-16, 2007 in Honolulu, HI, Thomas Freese conducted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) training for 20 staff affiliated with the multi-site NIDA/VA Modafinil Study.
  • One July 16-17, 2007 in Honolulu, HI, Thomas Freese and Valerie Pearce conducted two-day Addiction Severity Index (ASI) training for 40 staff affiliated with the multi-site NIDA/VA Modafinil Study.
  • On September 19-20, 2007 in Los Angeles, CA, Mark Oyama conducted two-day Addiction Severity Index (ASI) training. A total of 11 individuals participated.

NIDA Conferences/Meetings/Presentations