News Release - UGA researchers receive $9 million in grants to study barriers to effective addiction treatmentWriter: Terry Marie Hastings, 706/542-5941, thasting@uga.edu
Contact: Paul Roman, 706/542-6090, proman@uga.edu
Jan 3, 2008,
Athens, Ga. – More than 23 million Americans age 12 or older need treatment for substance abuse and addiction, yet only a fraction – less than 10 percent – actually receive it. Worse, among those who do get treatment, very few have access to the treatments that are known to work.
“We have treatments that work, and we have people who want treatment,” said Paul Roman, University of Georgia Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology and director of UGA’s Center for Research on Behavioral Health and Human Services Delivery, a component of the Institute for Behavioral Research (IBR).
“The problem now is getting treatment providers to adopt new, promising practices so that substance abusers can get the best treatment available.”
Roman and a team of researchers based in the IBR have been awarded multiple grants totaling $9 million from both federal and private sources to improve the quality of substance abuse treatment. Last fall, Roman was awarded a five-year $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the diffusion, adoption and implementation of effective substance abuse treatment practices in a network of clinical treatment providers across the country. Co-investigators are research scientists Lori Ducharme, Aaron Johnson and Hannah Knudsen. This grant follows a five-year $2.85 million grant from NIH in 2006 to continue a 15-year study tracking organizational changes and development in the national substance abuse treatment system.
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