Family Engagement, Cross-System Linkage to Substance Use Treatment for Juvenile Probationers -- Phase 3
Condition: Substance Use; Substance Abuse; Substance Use Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Substance Dependence; Substance Related Problem
MeSH terms: Substance-Related Disorders
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Developed from adapting and combining two evidence-based programs, Project CONNECT (a
      linkage-to-services program that targets barriers within the probation and substance abuse
      treatment systems) and TIES (a program that teaches family engagement skills to providers),
      Family CONNECT is a linkage-to-services program that targets both family and system-level
      factors to increase youth use of and retention in substance use services. Using Linkage
      Specialists embedded within probation departments, Family CONNECT will be implemented in two
      NYS probation departments. This proposed study will evaluate the impact of Family CONNECT on
      (1) youth referral from probation to substance abuse treatment, (2) youth and family
      engagement in substance abuse treatment, (3) youth enrollment/retention in substance abuse
      treatment, and (4) youth substance use and recidivism. Counts of youth referred, youth who
      start treatment, and youth retained in treatment will be obtained from the juvenile justice
      agency for 6-months pre-implementation of Family Connect (i.e. baseline) and during the
      implementation period of e-Connect; counts of youth recidivism will be obtained 6 months
      following the completion of Family Connect. This study will also identify family and
      probation organizational factors influencing Family CONNECT implementation in probation
      settings. 50 caregiver-youth dyads and up to 36 probation officers will be recruited as
      participants in the study. Caregiver-youth dyads will be evaluated at baseline, 2 and 6
      months; probation officers at baseline, 6, 12, and 18 months; linkage specialists at
      baseline, 6, 12, and 18 months.
    


Intervention name(s): Family CONNECT
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Linkage specialists, who are clinical social workers and embedded within the probation departments, will work with specifically caregiver-youth dyads in the Family CONNECT arm to link youth to substance use services.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: This study is a randomized control trial. Caregiver-youth dyads are randomized to either the control (standard of care) or experimental (Family CONNECT) group based on the youth's probation officer (randomization occurs at the level of the youth's probation officer). If randomized to the control (standard of care) group, caregiver-youth dyads will work with their probation officer as usual to link to substance use services. If randomized to the experimental (Family CONNECT) group, caregiver-youth dyads will work with a linkage specialist to link to substance use services. Youth in both groups will be compared to a baseline stand of care collected during the pre-implementation period.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Health Services Research
Keywords: drug use; drug addiction; drug habituation; drug use disorders; organic mental disorders; substance-induced; substance abuse; substance addiction; substance dependence; substance use disorders