WEB-BASED TOOL FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF EVIDENCE-BASED INTERVENTIONS FOR ATOD PREVENTION

NIDA
ID: 1R43DA035014-01
PI: JANEY MCMILLEN
TERM: 09/13 – 08/14

Over the past several decades, a large number of evidence-based prevention initiatives for alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use have been rigorously tested and shown to be efficacious. However, despite availability, evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for prevention of ATOD use are rarely adopted in everyday practice within school and community service settings. Further, even when adopted, these EBIs are seldom implemented with strong adherence to the original design and often fail to be sustained over time. A growing body of literature demonstrates how implementation quality is directly related to the likelihood an EBI will be embedded into everyday practice, as well as the likelihood that the EBI achieves its intended treatment outcomes. The most effective EBI will not produce positive results if it is not implemented with quality and sustained within its “real-world” service setting. NIDA’s Strategic Plan specifically identifies the need for effective methods to help close the gap between development of evidence-based prevention initiatives and their adoption and long-term sustainability in school and community service settings.

The goal of this Phase I SBIR project is to test the feasibility, acceptability, and utility of incorporating ATOD EBIs into a web-based tool (Centervention) currently designed to support dissemination and quality implementation of mental health EBIs for youth within school settings. This flexible technology infrastructure offers a suite of customizable online tools and services, including cost-efficient, high quality training and supervision resources, ongoing implementation assistance for intervention providers, adherence monitoring, and outcomes tracking that might be applicable to ATOD EBIs within school and community service settings. The content and user interface for the proposed ATOD EBI Centervention tool will be unique and built to accommodate the specific needs of ATOD EBIs. However, this project will benefit from 3C’s considerable technological experience. Such a large endeavor as that proposed for this SBIR would not be possible without availability of 3C’s flexible, reusable software platform.

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DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.