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The UA's Southwest Institute for Research on Women has received a federal grant to work to improve the systematic challenges within substance abuse treatment.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, UANews
September 18, 2008

A University of Arizona research institute has received a $1.2 million federal grant to study challenges young women and their families face within the substance abuse treatment system.

The UA’s Southwest Institute for Research on Women, or SIROW, received a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant this month for a gender-specific and trauma-informed project titled “Las Rosas: A Recovery-Oriented Support Systems Approach for Adolescent Girls.”

Coincidently, September is Recovery Month.

SIROW is one of several units and departments at the UA addressing substance abuse issues. The Campus Health Service provides counseling and a brief intervention to address alcohol use and Life & Work Connections offers services to UA employees.

The psychology department, the College of Nursing, the Mexican American Studies and Research Center, the Rural Health Office and Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health are among those whose staff and researchers are leading projects or outreach programs related to substance abuse.

And SIROW has addressed substance abuse issues among various populations in the past.

Its new project “is really unique as it is really targeting the systems in which young people in recovery maneuver through,” said Bridget Ruiz, the principal investigator for the grant. SIROW is also collaborating with Arizona’s Children Association on the project.

The project is meant to improve the quality of treatment and continuing care services while also creating community-based recovery support systems and community education. The project will also work to develop a recovery support plan for each girl that is in residential treatment.

Studying trauma will also be important to the project, Ruiz said, noting studies that have reported anywhere between 40 percent to 90 percent of youth substance abusers have been victimized and that girls are more likely than boys to report being victimized.

“It’s really about creating a paradigm shift. Substance abuse treatment has historically been an acute episode of treatment where you come in for 90 days, get the curriculum and treatment and are sent on your way,” said Ruiz, also an associate research professor for SIROW.

“We’ve found that it really takes one year at least for young people, moving in and out of recovery, before they come to some stability," she added.

The thought is that by providing an approach that targets the system as well as youth and their families, greater recovery support will be available.

The grant from the federal agency, also known as SAMSHA, will enable the institute to study and test a number of different treatment and support models – one of which was developed by Sally J. Stevens, SIROW’s executive director.

“A lot of research has looked at either the systems or intervention, particularly intervention,” Stevens said. “We’ve finally gotten to a place where we can look at the effectiveness of both simultaneously. This hasn’t been common, but this approach is becoming common.” The statistics explain why such a project is important, Stevens added.

“At this point in the state of Arizona and across the nation we’re seeing increases in certain types of drug use and certain prescription drug use,” she said.

Also, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported in 2006 that 2.1 million youth aged 12 through 17 needed some form of treatment for alcohol abuse or illegal drug use. But of that population, about 181,000 youth received treatment at a specialty facility.

Stevens said the team “really wants to look at how different treatments are effective for addressing types of drug use.”

It’s a different approach to drug treatment research, Stevens said. “This is important. The adolescent research is not that old and we haven’t come that far along to be looking at gender-specific research for girls.”

“Las Rosas,” which means “The Roses” in Spanish, is meant to “expand, enhance, strengthen and improve the recovery-oriented systems of care” for girls and their families living in Pima County, the project proposal noted.

The project intends to engage 120 girls between the ages of 12 and 17 of various ethnic and racial backgrounds over a three-year period. The girls’ caregivers will also be involved.

“It is empowering the youth while supporting them,” Ruiz said. “And it’s examining and redefining the approaches and methods used by clinical staff to treat substance abuse."

SIROW team members responsibile for implementation, clinical oversight and evaluation are senior program coordinator Alison Greene, research associate Rosi Andrade, senior survey interviewer Susanne Auer and Andrea Verdin, a therapist.

Other team members are research specialists Kristin Hedges and Josephine Korchmaros and also research technician Monica Davis.

SIROW will also create a multidisciplinary committee composed of experts and professionals in areas that include education, recovery, wellness, law and commerce. The consortium, which is currently being created, will help figure out ways to support the young women and their families while also advising the project team.

“We are really trying to bring in some people who understand girls and understand the situation,” Stevens said. “This will allow us to look at the youth from a holistic perspective.”