CENTER
FOR POLICY ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH
Joining Science and Policy to Advance Quality Improvement in Addiction
Care
Director: Mady Chalk, Ph.D.
The Center for Policy Analysis and Research is the coordinating hub for TRI’s policy-based initiatives. The Center is an “incubator” where policy makers, state agency directors, fiscal managers, and elected officials meet with clinical and policy researchers to exchange ideas and develop testable strategies. It is also a consultative body within TRI, where investigators from other sections and Centers turn for assistance when their work has taken on policy relevance at the federal, state or local levels.
MAPS, or the Mutual Assistance Program for States, is the Center’s signature project and embodies its defining principle: evidence-based reform of government practices can advance quality improvement in addiction care. Launched in November of 2006, MAPS is a group of eight states whose single state agency directors work with Center investigators to design projects that change some aspect of their purchasing, regulatory, administrative and/or financing practices. TRI plays host to the group, providing technical expertise, evaluation and analytical support, and will eventually evaluate the results of the projects, producing “evidence” of practices and policies that can be disseminated widely. More about MAPS
TRI’s educational work with State legislators and other policy makers is coordinated through the Center for Policy Analysis and Research, as is the Advancing Recovery project, a quality improvement initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. View Selected Projects.
The Center was instituted in November 2005 under the leadership of former SAMHSA official Mady Chalk, Ph.D. Chalk’s appointment brought visibility to the Center and combined her substantial experience in federal policy, health services research, and administration with the research and evaluation strengths of TRI.
