# Adoption of Family-Driven Substance Use Services in the Juvenile Justice System: A Pre-Implementation Assessment

> **NIH NIH F31** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $46,752

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Less than one-third of justice-involved youth (JIY) with an identified substance use (SU) need initiate treatment
services. One of the most prominently cited barriers to JIY initiation and engagement in SU treatment is the
lack of family involvement in the service delivery process. Improving family engagement in service delivery is
currently a national priority area for juvenile justice (JJ) systems, but there is very little guidance for
implementation in this setting. To begin filling this gap, the trainee will conduct a comprehensive, theoretically
informed pre-implementation assessment with families and JJ staff, to understand family- and organizational-
level barriers and facilitators to adoption of a family-driven care framework for SU service delivery. Family-
driven care involves: (1) partnering with families to make SU service decisions, (2) implementing formal ways
for families to inform organizational SU practices/policy, (3) providing SU support services for family members,
and (4) enhancing cultural responsiveness and family inclusion in SU services. The specific aims are to (1)
conduct five focus groups (including a total of 30-40 participants) with family members of JIY to understand
their perceptions of the family-driven framework as well as their needs and recommendations for engaging
families in SU services in the JJ system; and (2) guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation
Research (CFIR), conduct a multiple-case study of 20 community supervision offices in Georgia, to understand
the cross-case variability in organizational factors that may influence readiness to implement family-driven SU
services. Achieving the aims of this study will provide targeted recommendations and contextualized
implementation planning for integrating a feasible and acceptable family-driven SU intervention in JJ systems.
In addition, this work will support the training of Ms. Piper, who is devoted to a research career in the
implementation of evidence-based behavioral health interventions for JIY. Ms. Piper's 3-year training plan
includes: (1) refining methodological skills in implementation science, 2) enhancing understanding of JJ
research, including SU programs for youth involved in the legal system, and 3) strengthening skills in advanced
and innovative qualitative methodology. The team of mentors, Drs. Sales (Primary Sponsor), Escoffery (Co-
Sponsor), Brody (Co-Sponsor), and Cragun (Consultant), will lend their expertise to train and mentor Ms. Piper
in implementation science, juvenile justice research, adolescent substance use, family-based approaches, and
qualitative methods. Moreover, Ms. Piper will not only leverage her connection to the Georgia Department of
Juvenile Justice but also to resources at Emory University, including the Center for the Health of Incarcerated
Persons, the Network for Evaluation and Implementation Science, the Women and Children's Center, and the
Center for Translational and Preve...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10401248
- **Project number:** 5F31DA053005-02
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Kaitlin Piper
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $46,752
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-06-01 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10401248

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10401248, Adoption of Family-Driven Substance Use Services in the Juvenile Justice System: A Pre-Implementation Assessment (5F31DA053005-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10401248. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*