In September 2018, Iowa Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services received a five year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to implement services that incorporate the principles of the Housing First model program. This project addresses the housing instability and lack of resources needed to support clients in the Linn County Iowa Drug Treatment Court program by providing supportive housing and greater access to detoxification and residential substance use disorder treatment. Resources for Human Development (RHD) delivers case management and housing resource services to individuals in the project. The Consortium is responsible for conducting the evaluation for the grant.

In October 2012, the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services received a three year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT). Enhanced services for clients in Treatment Drug Court Programs in Johnson and Linn counties are provided through the addition of a specialized psychiatric case manager, access to and education regarding medically assisted treatment, provision of group services to address the issues of criminality and substance abuse, increased alcohol and drug monitoring, and development of a peer support component. The Consortium is responsible for conducting a process and outcome monitoring for this grant.

In October 2009, the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services received a three- year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT). The program provided employment services through Goodwill of the Heartland to individuals in the Treatment Drug Court Programs in Johnson and Linn counties. The Consortium was under contract to conduct follow-up interviews with clients served in the program at approximately six months post-admission. During year three, the program was awarded an additional no-cost extension year. At the end of the grant, the Consortium had a follow-up rate of 98.94%.

The Maquoketa (Iowa) Community School District was awarded a Grant to Reduce Alcohol Abuse funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools in June 2008. Partners in the project include the Andrew, Bellevue, and Preston Community School Districts, the Area Substance Abuse Council (ASAC), and the Consortium. The grant supports prevention programming for 6th through 12th grade youth, substance abuse counseling, and the implementation of an environmental prevention program in the participating school districts. The Consortium conducted a process and outcome evaluation to determine the degree of success in achieving project goals. This project was completed in 2011.

The Culturally Competent Substance Abuse Treatment Project began in November, 2007 and ended June, 2017. Funded by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), the project aimed to address barriers to treatment for members of minority groups and to implement culturally competent treatment services. The evaluation involved assessing outcomes for minority clients receiving these services by collecting outcomes data via SMART, analyzing substance use and demographic variables, and an analysis that compared outcomes for project participants to clients in other treatment programs in the state. The treatment agencies involved in the project when the project ended were: the Area Substance Abuse Council (Linn County), Jackson Recovery Centers, Inc. (Woodbury County), and Seasons Center (Clay County). The goals of the project were:

• Increase substance abuse treatment options for targeted cultural, ethnic, or racial populations.
• Provide substance abuse treatment services using evidence-based methods or curricula that have demonstrated positive outcomes with the target population.
• Identify barriers and work with community supportive services to assist clients to participate in and complete CCTP services.
• Assess CCTP effectiveness and client outcomes by maintaining contact with clients for six (6) months after discharge.
• Disseminate CCTP information including, but not limited to, programming, lessons learned, community involvement, and outcomes.
• Train staff to work more effectively with the target population.
• Measure cultural competence and cultural satisfaction of clients, family members and staff.

he project work focused on the developmental processes necessary to begin collaborative work between domestic violence shelters and substance abuse agencies as they address the challenge of a shared clientele with unique needs. The participating sites will work collaboratively with the Integrated Services Project Team (ISP), and Professor William Downs as Principal Investigator, to develop better practices, cross train staff in regarding battered women abusing substances, and plan for the implementation of integrated services as agency staff members are striving to effectively work with this population of women. The Consortium began providing evaluation services for the project beginning October 1, 2001. Consortium team members provided an independent evaluation of the project that monitored:

1. Attainment of objectives;
2. Participating agency staff degree of satisfaction with educational programming developed and implemented;
3. Degree of positive increase in attitudes toward interagency cooperation.

Professor William Downs, University of Northern Iowa was awarded National Institute of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women funding for his project.

Domestic Violence and Substance Abuse Services for Women - Year One Report

Formerly known as the Outcomes Monitoring System (OMS), the Iowa Treatment Outcomes Monitoring (iTOM) project is conducted by the Consortium under contract from the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) Division of Behavioral Health, Bureau of Substance Abuse. This project is an independent evaluation of substance use disorder treatment outcomes in Iowa. Follow-up interviews are conducted with randomly selected patients from substance use disorder treatment agencies receiving IDPH funding approximately six months after admission to the treatment program.

In September 2002, IDPH was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance to implement substance abuse treatment services in a jail setting. Treatment services are provided to offenders in Polk County, Scott County, Story County, and Woodbury County Jails during incarceration and following their release from jail. The Consortium is conducting an independent follow-up evaluation to assist in determining the effectiveness of treatment services. This project ended in 2012.

In October 2014, Johnson County, Iowa received a two-year grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program to enhance services for clients in the Drug Treatment Court program. The grant provided funding for recovery support services to address employment barriers experienced by clients in the Johnson County Drug Court program. Johnson County contracted with Goodwill of the Heartland to provide employment services to clients. The Consortium conducted the evaluation.

This project’s purpose was to broaden treatment infrastructure for evidence-based medication assisted treatment (MAT) services in Iowa. In August 2015, the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) received a 3-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) under the Targeted Capacity Expansion: Medication Assisted Treatment - Prescription Drug and Opioid Addiction program. In December 2015, IDPH contracted with four treatment providers in the Iowa’s highest need counties:

• Area Substance Abuse Council, Linn County (East-Central Iowa)
• Jackson Recovery Centers, Woodbury County (Northwest Iowa)
• Mercy Turning Point Treatment Center, Dubuque County (Northeast Iowa)
• United Community Services, Inc., Polk County (Central Iowa)

The MAT Iowa project attempts to obtain the following goals:

• Coordinate expansion and enhancement of MAT services
• Increase the number of individuals receiving MAT services
• Decrease illicit drug use and improve client outcomes

The Consortium, the Iowa Department of Public Health, and Magellan Health Services of Iowa worked together to implement Motivational Interviewing in Iowa. The selection and subsequent implementation of Motivational Interviewing (MI) is part of a statewide process to implement evidenced-based practices in Iowa. Once a core set of professionals were trained, the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation (Iowa Consortium) recommended that the state form an MI Network to sustain and expand training in the state. The MI network consists of substance abuse professionals who have completed advanced MI training.

Motivational Interviewing Network Process

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded a two-year grant to the Consortium to continue the evaluation of the Clarinda TOW (The Other Way) program at the Clarinda Correctional Facility. The TOW evaluation addressed the following questions:

1. Does the program accomplish its stated intermediate goals (i.e. influence attitude change regarding substance use)?
2. Are there differences between clients who completed the cognitive unit program at TOW versus the two 12-step based units?
3. Are certain types of clients better served by the TOW program than others?

Information has been archived at the National Addiction and HIV Data Archive.

TOW Evaluation Project Final Report, Summary, Sept. 2021

The Consortium, in conjunction with the Prairielands Addiction Technology Transfer Center, completed a one-year developmental award from CSAT for the purpose of establishing new and enhancing current mechanisms for collaboration between research, intervention and prevention practice, state policy offices and consumers in Iowa. Using a structure of inter-disciplinary committees on Epidemiology, Treatment and Prevention, the PRC effort created a strategic plan for Iowa research needs which includes: co-occurring disorders, needs for women in treatment, training on best practices for treatment clinicians and prevention specialists, community-wide prevention coalitions, and technical assistance for agencies, legislators, and substance abuse agencies in the state. Each committee included practitioners, policy makers, consumers, and researchers in an effort to encompass a wide view of the treatment and prevention needs in the state. This development project ended in 2000.

In September 2015, the Consortium contracted with Prairie Ridge Integrated Behavioral Healthcare to conduct follow-up interviews with a random sample of their clients. The interviews took place either six months after treatment discharge or one year after treatment admission. This was a two-year contract where data was analyzed to assess changes from admission to follow-up for outcomes such as substance use, employment, arrests and incarcerations, substance-use related hospitalizations, living arrangements, and education. Additional questions asked at follow-up included participation with community-based support systems following treatment, perceptions of quality of relationships, participation in medically assisted treatment, and other questions to supplement the outcomes monitoring. The Consortium also developed a web-based satisfaction survey to offer to all clients receiving treatment at Prairie Ridge.

The Consortium investigated and modeled client characteristics that predict treatment success. The project consisted of four steps:

• A literature review to identify and evaluate predictors of treatment success.
• An analysis of existing data using Iowa's substance abuse reporting system (SARS) to create a statistical prediction model of success.
• A review of the model with substance abuse treatment agency directors and Iowa Department of Public Health officials.
• Develop suggestions for future data collection and improvements in the SARS.

Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) was an early-intervention approach for identifying, reducing, and preventing problematic drug and alcohol use. SBIRT could be practiced in any healthcare setting, but practitioners needed to be trained, learn about its benefits, and receive guidelines for how to implement SBIRT in their own practice. SBIRT+ promoted adoption of SBIRT practices for geriatric populations through the Iowa Geriatric Education Center at the University of Iowa. The SBIRT PLUS project, beginning in 2015, was a 3-year grant awarded to the Iowa Geriatric Education Center, University of Iowa, and was funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. The Consortium helped establish SBIRT principles and conducted the process and outcome evaluation.

Access to Recovery - Iowa (ATR) was a four-year grant awarded to the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) in October 2010. ATR provided funding to individuals to purchase services and supports linked to their recovery from substance abuse. ATR emphasized client choice and increased the array of available community-based services, supports, and providers. The Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families (SMVF) Policy Academy was a part of the ATR project and focused on the needs of active members, veterans, and their families. The Consortium provided epidemiological, geo-statistical, and GIS support to the workgroup.

In December 2011, the Consortium contracted with St. Gregory Retreat Center, a private residential drug and alcohol treatment facility. The Consortium conducted an independent follow-up evaluation to assist in determining the effectiveness of treatment services.

The purpose of State Youth Treatment - Implementation (SYT-I) was to expand and enhance evidence-based treatment and recovery support services for substance use disorders and/or co-occurring disorders among adolescents (ages 12 to 17) and transitional-aged youth (ages 18-25) and their families. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) awarded this three- year project to the Iowa Department of Public Health Division of Behavioral Health in 2015. The Consortium helped conduct the process and outcome evaluation.

Emerging need for evidence-based substance abuse treatment practices led to the development of Iowa’s Statewide Knowledge Implementation Plan (SKIP) Work Group. This SKIP Work Group devoted its efforts to creating a sustainable mechanism for examining and evaluating which evidence-based practices were applicable for the state of Iowa.

Representation on this 14-member working group included public health, provider directors, clinical supervisors, counselors, community-based corrections, managed care, hospital-based programming, and research consultation from the Iowa Consortium. Rural and urban settings were represented, as were all geographic regions of the state. Resources for examining the criteria for Evidence-Based Practices were included in the reports. This project was completed in 2004.

The TCE project was a three-year Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) grant awarded to the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) in 1999. This grant was one of 100+ TCE grants awarded nationwide over a two-year period.

The Iowa Consortium was sub-contracted through IDPH as the grant evaluator. The IDPH was awarded this grant to enhance methamphetamine treatment for adults in the Des Moines area. The grant money was primarily used to create additional treatment slots for methamphetamine users and lengthen their treatment stays. The project also provided case-management services to those clients. The Consortium concentrated on follow-up interviews to evaluate treatment experiences for each client and analyzed the collection for outcome measures and indicators for successful treatment completion.

The TCE project, a three-year Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) grant, was awarded to the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) in 2003. The Consortium is sub-contracted through IDPH as the grant evaluator. The IDPH was awarded this grant to enhance methamphetamine treatment for adults in the Des Moines area. The grant money was primarily being used to create additional treatment slots for methamphetamine users and lengthen their treatment stays. The project also provided case-management services to those clients. The Consortium concentrated on follow-up interviews to evaluate treatment experiences for each client, and analyzed the collection for outcome measures and indicators for successful treatment completion.

In September 2006, the City of Cedar Rapids was awarded a three year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) under the Targeted Capacity Expansion (TCE) Grant Program. The purpose of this grant was to expand and enhance methamphetamine and cocaine treatment for adults in Linn, Benton, and Jones Counties in Iowa. The city contracted with the Area Substance Abuse Council (ASAC) to provide treatment services for the TCE program. The Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation was contracted to conduct the evaluation component of the TCE project. Two hundred fifty individuals were served in the program. The evaluation included collection of outcome, process, and fidelity data. As part of the outcome evaluation, Consortium staff attempted to interview all clients admitted to the grant program approximately six months following admission and achieved a 92.3% follow-up rate

This was one of eleven CSAT-funded centers nationwide devoted to bridging the gap between research, policy and practice in the field of substance abuse. The Iowa PIC was a partnership of substance abuse providers, researchers, policy makers, and consumers. PIC activities centered on co-occurring disorders training, prison-based treatment, issues of substance abusing women, technical assistance for providers and policy makers, and implementation of evidence-based practices. This project ended in 2004.

In October 2000, the Consortium began year three of work through Iowa Department of Public Health and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) to help strengthen and enhance the independent Outcome Monitoring System (OMS). Through the TOPPS (Treatment Outcomes Performance Pilot Studies) II protocol the OMS will test a computerized instrument for assessment and placement in a pilot group of agencies. Along with the computerized assessment, researchers will be implementing a screening instrument for reported co-occurring psychiatric symptoms, identifying outcomes for methamphetamine users and analyzing supplementary statewide data sets to aid in the collection of specific outcome variables for substance abuse clients.

Veterans are vulnerable to developing addictive disorders that may become more complicated by problems such as traumatic brain injury and co-occurring psychiatric conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and mood disturbances. Alcohol use disorders are frequently observed among veterans and hinder community reintegration after deployment. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is devoting extraordinary efforts to developing adequate treatment strategies to address this health problem. This study, funded by the Veterans Administration (VA), evaluated treatment outcomes and identified specific factors that affected veterans' treatment responses. Clients being studied were enrolled in a VA Intensive Outpatient Program that offered rehabilitation treatment to the growing number of veterans with alcohol use disorders in Iowa, Illinois, northern Missouri, and Texas.

Cooperation between researchers and clinical staff allowed for the optimization of treatment strategies that enhanced the recovery of veterans with alcohol use disorders. This project was a collaboration of the VA, the University of Iowa, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation.

The Comprehensive Substance Abuse Prevention (COMP) Project, funded by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), involves prevention programming that supports all 99 counties in Iowa. The Consortium's activities involve developing survey instruments; training site staff on survey administration and data entry; monitoring data entry; analyzing data; and reporting on participant outcomes related to the prevention programming. The Comprehensive Prevention Project Evaluation Project Report FY10 includes data for the first five project years: 7/1/2005 to 6/30/2010. In 2011, the survey instruments were revised to increase compatibility with the Iowa Youth Survey.

The Anamosa Community School District was awarded funding for the Keeping Up with the Joneses project funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools through the Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse Program. The project supports prevention programming to all 6th through 12th grade youth in the 4 school districts in Jones County. The Consortium is conducting a process and outcome evaluation to determine the degree of success in achieving project goals. The goals of the project are to:

1. Reduce underage alcohol use and binge drinking by the youth targeted by the prevention programs,
2. Increase the number of targeted youth who disapprove of alcohol abuse,
3. Increase the number of targeted youth who believe alcohol is harmful to their health,
4. Demonstrate comprehensive, county-wide alcohol prevention system change,
5. Demonstrate local capacity to implement and sustain research-based prevention programs.

This project was completed July 1, 2008.

Jones County Final Report

The National Guard Prevention Project (2006 - 2011), a program of the Iowa National Guard, and primarily involved implementation the LifeSkills Training Program in school districts in Des Moines and surrounding communities. The Consortium provided technical assistance to the National Guard on development of survey instruments and evaluation protocols; trains staff on survey administration and data entry; monitors data entry; analyzes data; and reports on participant outcomes related to the prevention programming.

Prevention through Mentoring (7/1/2006 - 6/30/2015) is a multi-site project funded by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). Prevention agencies implement school and community-based individual and group mentoring programs. The Consortium provides training and technical assistance to sites regarding survey administration and data entry, and monitors site-based data entry. The Consortium also analyzes data and provides outcome reports.

The Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG) is a five year grant funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). The SPF is a five-step process which assists states in developing a comprehensive plan for prevention infrastructure and supports selected local communities in implementing effective programs, policies and practices to reduce substance abuse and its related problems. The goals of the grant are to prevent the onset and reduce the progression of substance abuse, including childhood and underage drinking; reduce substance abuse-related problems in communities, and; build prevention capacity and infrastructure at the state/tribal and community level. More information is available at the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Youth Development (7/1/2006 - 6/30/2015) was a multi-site prevention project funded by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). Prevention agencies implemented school and community-based prevention programs. The Consortium provided training and technical assistance to sites regarding survey administration and data entry, and monitors site-based data entry. The Consortium also analyzed data and provides outcome reports.