# Testing a System-level Implementation Intervention to Improve the Quality of Family-Based Services for Adolescent Substance Use

> **NIH NIH R34** · PARTNERSHIP TO END ADDICTION · 2021 · $12,516

## Abstract

Abstract
This R34 study will first develop treatment quality assurance procedures designed to increase the adoption
and quality of empirically supported family-based services (FBS) for adolescent substance use (ASU) in usual
care, and then test two system-level implementation strategies for installing the new quality procedures in ASU
treatment sites. FBS have achieved the strongest evidence base for treating ASU and are a prime candidate
for upgrading the quality of ASU services in various systems of care. FBS comprise both family participation
in services, the systemic parameters wherein family members are included in assessment and treatment
activities; and family therapy techniques, the specific interventions that clinicians use to directly target family
members and family functioning for change. For FBS to fulfill their potential to enhance ASU treatment
systems, FBS implementation must be supported by effective quality assurance (QA) procedures designed to
ensure that FBS are delivered with fidelity. To advance this effort, the proposed study will leverage a strong
research-government partnership between the applicant organization and the New York single-state agency for
SU services. The study will first develop innovative QA procedures (Aim 1) that use existing FBS quality
metrics to promote high-fidelity FBS: Measurement Feedback System for Implementation (MFS-I), a pragmatic
evidence-based method for increasing FBS quality by providing monthly feedback on therapist-reported FBS
delivery along with brief online FBS training modules. The study will then experimentally compare two
systemlevel
implementation strategies designed to foster MFS-I utilization in usual care for ASU. Core Training Only
will contain two 3-hour training sessions: Mapping existing FBS and identifying site goals for FBS
improvement; and Installing and sustaining the MFS-I. Core + Facilitation is an additive strategy that will
begin with the Core Training sessions and then continue with monthly facilitation meetings for one year to
promote MFS-I use and progress toward FBS improvement. The study will feature a three-group cluster
randomized trial testing Core Training Only versus Core + Facilitation versus no-intervention Control in 15
representative ASU clinics across New York State. MFS-I utilization data will be collected from Core Training
and Core + Facilitation sites for one-year follow-up (after initial Core Training); FBS quality data on family
participation and family therapy technique use will be collected from all sites over one-year follow-up; and client
outcome data for all sites will be retrieved from administrative data warehouses over one-year baseline and
one-year follow-up. These data will enable between-condition comparisons of FBS delivery (Aim 2: MFS-I
utilization, family participation, family therapy technique use) and client outcomes (Aim 3: therapeutic goal
achievement, substance use change). If study aims are achieved, investigators would be po...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10403185
- **Project number:** 3R34DA044740-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** PARTNERSHIP TO END ADDICTION
- **Principal Investigator:** Aaron Hogue
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $12,516
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2017-09-15 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10403185

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10403185, Testing a System-level Implementation Intervention to Improve the Quality of Family-Based Services for Adolescent Substance Use (3R34DA044740-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10403185. Licensed CC0.

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