# Telehealth-Clinical Advocacy Project (T-CAP)

> **NIH NIH R21** · TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $199,068

## Abstract

SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The opioid crisis has reached epidemic proportions across America. In Illinois, the focus of this application,
opioid-related deaths have increased 32% in the past year. As part of a State response, Illinois has launched a
police Opioid Diversion Program (ODP), where individuals voluntarily enter the program and ask for help with
substance use treatment, without fear of arrest. The proposed Telehealth-Clinical Advocacy Project (T-CAP)
intervention focuses on enhancing one Illinois ODP by (1) introducing a telehealth model to link participants to
a trained clinician throughout the intervention process and (2) expanding the community treatment services
infrastructure (including expanded options for pain management and increased access to medical services that
can provide MAT). Volunteer study participants will be randomized to one of two conditions: (1) “treatment as
usual” (TAU) comparison group who will meet with a research assistant (RA) to complete surveys at three time
points, or (2) T-CAP intervention group who will complete surveys and receive seven telehealth clinical
sessions featuring brief intervention services with Motivational Interviewing (MI), “assertive” referrals, and three
months of on-going clinical support and advocacy from a clinician. The novelty of this strategy is that it focuses
on the need to provide participants with rapidly available professional level clinical services and support as part
of the police diversion program, and it expands the service infrastructure to include increased access to MAT
and alternative pain management services. The primary study aims are (1) to demonstrate intervention
feasibility by measuring study participant receptivity and utilization of the telehealth approach and (2) evaluate
the proposed T-CAP measures to assess their performance in gauging the impact telehealth on substance use
treatment initiation, short-term treatment retention, and access to other appropriate treatment services for
future large-scale research. If the enhancements are feasible, the potential impact of the highly innovative
T-CAP intervention will be major. The study’s potential to achieve the larger goal of reducing opioid use and
related health problems will have major implications for police diversion policy and practice.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9980864
- **Project number:** 5R21DA048232-02
- **Recipient organization:** TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jennifer Pankow
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $199,068
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9980864

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9980864, Telehealth-Clinical Advocacy Project (T-CAP) (5R21DA048232-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9980864. Licensed CC0.

---

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