Probation Officers – Contingency Management – Emerging Adults (PO-CM-EA)

Funds for this administrative supplement were awarded as part of the National Institute on Drug Abuse HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Initiative focusing specifically on preventing the development of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in young adults (ages 18-30). The overarching purpose of this pilot study is to increase justice-involved young adults’ access to an evidence-based practice (EBP) for substance abuse, specifically Contingency Management (CM). The study’s ultimate aim is to prevent development of OUD in young adults who are on probation/parole, an under-researched but extraordinarily vulnerable group for developing problems with opioids. CM is an evidence-based practice for substance abuse, including opioid and polysubstance use. Because other substance use is usually a precursor to opioid misuse and OUD in justice-involved young adults, this study proposes that CM could be used to prevent conversion to OUD. The project will recruit 10 probation officers from Parole and Probation offices in Oregon and train them to deliver CM to 30 (3 per probation officer) of their substance-using young adult clients who do not yet meet criteria for an OUD. By utilizing POs, the potential for increasing emerging adults’ access to an EBP is immense as POs operate in every jurisdiction in the nation. In addition, the study will conduct focus groups with stakeholders from rural communities in areas highly affected by the opioid epidemic to help identify factors for the generalizability of POs to deliver CM in rural communities. Data will be analyzed to discover themes related to PO service delivery of CM to ensure future national scalability.

Year Project Began: 2019
Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse

Co-Investigator:

• Michael R. McCart, Ph.D.

Formerly Affiliated Principal Investigator:

• Ashli J. Sheidow, Ph.D.

Formerly Affiliated Co-Investigators:

• Tess K. Drazdowski, Ph.D.
• Jason E. Chapman, Ph.D.