Wayne State University College of Education receives grant to help schools implement curriculum to prevent drug abuse
The Wayne State University College of Education was awarded a three-year, $693,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to support “Enhancing the Impact of Evidence-Based Prevention for Youth: The Rapid Adaptation to Prevent Drug Use (RAPD) Implementation Strategy.” The purpose of RAPD is to enhance system responsiveness to emerging drug use among youth using the Michigan Model for Health — an existing and widely adopted evidence-based universal prevention curriculum.
Launched last summer, the initiative is designed to help the state’s network of school health coordinators support health teachers, staff, leadership and students in promoting health in schools. Specifically, the project will foster new ways to reduce the impact of emerging drugs and provide an infrastructure to address future trends effectively and quickly. The project focuses on under-resourced communities that are at high risk of drug use and its consequences.
According to Andria Eisman, assistant professor of community health and principal investigator, this research project will enhance the public health impact of existing evidence-based interventions, improve health equity and allow similar adaptations of future emerging drug use issues. Faculty collaborators include Ty Partridge, associate professor of psychology in the Wayne State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and director of the university’s Research, Design and Analysis Unit; Sue Brown, associate professor in the Wayne State University School of Social Work; and Bo Kim, assistant professor in the Harvard Medical School, investigator in the Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and co-investigator. Community collaborators include the Michigan School Health Coordinators Association, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Michigan Department of Education.
“This funding will allow us to support schools in responding quickly and efficiently when new drug trends emerge,” said Eisman. “We are excited about collaborating with schools and our partners to address one of the nation’s ongoing challenges.”
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R34DA056777. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.