FRI Researcher Receives First R01 Award

FRI is pleased to announce that Shannon Gwin Mitchell, Ph.D., along with Co-Investigators Robert Schwartz and Barry Brown, have received a grant award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse entitled “SBIRT Implementation for Adolescents in Urban Federally Qualified Health Centers.” The proposed study is significant because it will help determine whether one adolescent Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) implementation strategy is superior to the other in terms of reach, cost effectiveness, and acceptability within urban Federally Qualified Health Center settings, thereby filling a gap in scientific knowledge at a time when SBIRT is poised to be brought to scale under health care reform to reduce the public health burden of adolescent substance misuse. The study is highly innovative because it will be the first implementation study of adolescent SBIRT and one of the first prospective trials to use an implementation science conceptual framework for substance abuse interventions. Furthermore, the study will provide novel cost data which can help to guide public and private health care policy-makers as well as clinic directors about the widespread adoption of SBIRT in adolescent health care. FRI congratulates Dr. Mitchell, and her colleagues, regarding receipt of this grant award.

This new R01 represents Dr. Mitchell’s second major federal grant, as she was awarded an ARRA “Challenge Grant” in 2009. As a result of the awarding of this new R01, Dr. Mitchell has been promoted to Senior Research Scientist at FRI. FRI also wishes to congratulate Dr. Mitchell on this noteworthy professional accomplishment.