# Training in Nursing Interventions for HIV and Addiction in Criminal Justice Settings

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2020 · $206,755

## Abstract

Over the four years of this proposal, Dr. Culbert will achieve his career goal of establishing an independent career path
developing, testing, and disseminating interventions for HIV and addiction through three training objectives: (1
Develop expertise in research methods to develop, test, and evaluate evidence-based interventions for HIV and
addiction with a focus on HIV+ prisoners in low and middle-income countries; (2 Gain experience delivering and
testing complex interventions for behavior change with individuals through well-designed clinical trials; 3) Increase
proficiency in statistical methods for analyzing clinical trials and techniques for evaluating processes of
implementation. A mentored career development award is essential at this stage to provide the candidate with
training and experience to develop and test complex interventions with prisoners. Although the candidate received
excellent postdoctoral mentoring, he has no prior experience developing, testing, or evaluating evidence-based
interventions, which are his career aims. Dr. Culbert has assembled an outstanding team of mentors in the fields of
HIV, intervention development, and clinical trials. Under their guidance, he will complete formal coursework and
conduct research to achieve his career goals and submit a highly competitive R01/R34 upon completion of the K award.
The HIV epidemic in Indonesia is expanding and closely intertwined with substance use and incarceration. Very few
people living with HIV (<8%) receive treatment with antiretroviral therapy (ART), and HIV-related mortality has
increased 427% from 2005-13, despite global reductions. At the core of Indonesia's HIV epidemic are people who inject
drugs, and prisoners for whom ART adherence is problematic, especially after prison release. Effective use of ART in
prisoners at the point of release could improve health outcomes and limit the spread of HIV. Set in the context of
Indonesia's large treatment gap, the proposed mentored research projects are highly innovative because they are the
first studies outside the U.S. to develop and test a medication adherence intervention for released prisoners, who
globally are at markedly increased risk of ART non-adherence and mortality. These aims directly address NIDA
(FY2016) priority areas for AIDS research including: 1) engaging and retaining substance users in care; and 2)
developing evidence-based interventions for challenging, real-world settings. In Project 1, we will develop an ART
adherence intervention for released prisoners in Indonesia, using ATHENA (Adherence Through Home Education
and Nursing Assessment), an evidence-based intervention, as our conceptual framework. In Project 2, we will
conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial to examine cultural acceptability and organizational feasibility of the
intervention. This is not a replication study. Rather, we use a coherent methodology (ADAPT-ITT) to culturally adapt
ATHENA to address the transition from prison – r...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10000901
- **Project number:** 5K23DA041988-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Gabriel John Culbert
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $206,755
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10000901

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10000901, Training in Nursing Interventions for HIV and Addiction in Criminal Justice Settings (5K23DA041988-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10000901. Licensed CC0.

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