CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH
Joining Science and Policy to Advance Quality Improvement in Addiction Care
Director: Mady Chalk, Ph.D.

Mutual Assistance Program for States “MAPS”: Mady Chalk, Ph.D., A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D. Launched November 2006, this unique project is a collaboration of eight states and the Treatment Research Institute to advance the quality of addiction treatment through administrative and purchasing reform and evaluation of policy experiments.. Performance based contracting, strengthening the continuum of care, and tracking cost offsets to better direct funding, are the chosen projects of the participating states. Read More.

Advancing Recovery: A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D., Mady Chalk, Ph.D.
Under an $11 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, TRI and the Network for Improvement of Addiction Treatment (NIATx) are co-directing “Advancing Recovery: State Provider Partnerships for Quality Addiction Care.” The project is providing technical assistance and coaching to competitively selected partnerships of state agencies and treatment providers to increase the use of evidence-based administrative and clinical practices in the treatment of addictions. Six partnerships were funded in 2006; six more are expected to win approval in the 2007 round. Visit Project Website.

Educating State Legislators on the Outcomes of Addiction Treatment and Approaches to Measuring Performance: A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D., Mady Chalk, Ph.D., Deni Carise, Ph.D., Douglas Marlowe, J.D., Ph.D.
In 2007 this SAMHSA-funded project began its third year of bringing scientists to State capitols to discuss ways the quality of addiction treatment can be improved through performance measurement. The many topics covered at these locally-designed briefings include monitoring outcomes of expenditures, tracking return on investment and re-directing savings through cost-offset studies, developing performance-based contracting systems, and improving purchasing practices. Funded under Partners for Recovery through Abt Associates, the project is led by the State Associations of Addictions Services with TRI and NCSL. Visit the Website.

Addiction Studies Program: A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D. ,Douglas Marlowe, J.D., Ph.D., Mady Chalk, Ph.D., Deni Carise, Ph.D.
This NIDA-funded project was co-founded in 1999 by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the National Families in Action, originally as an educational series for journalists. In 2005, a separate series for legislators was added when TRI and the National Conference of State Legislatures became project partners. Acknowledging that issues of addiction are challenging and cross-cutting at the State level, beginning in 2007 the series pairs legislators with their Executive branch counterparts in workshops covering fiscal, substance abuse treatment and prevention, health, criminal justice, child welfare, and other issues. Visit the Website.