ABOUT TRI
Treatment Improving Assessment, Referral and Tracking Systems
The Addiction Severity Index, developed by TRI co-founder A. Thomas McLellan and his colleagues, is used by trained clinicians to assess symptom severity and develop treatment plans matched to patient need. Also developed by McLellan and colleagues, the Treatment Services Review generates a quantitative record of the services a client receives during treatment, helping managers audit programs and verify fidelity to treatment plans.
The Significant Others Survey (SOS) measures the special problems facing relatives and significant others when substance abuse strikes within families.
The DENS software system reduces data collection burdens and provides clinical meaning to the assessment process. Trained clinicians electronically enter ASI data and receive narrative case reports to use in treatment planning. When DENS is installed in a system of providers, local trends in drug use and substance-related problems can be tracked.
A computer-assisted patient referral system helps providers quickly locate community-based auxiliary services matched to patient needs. In systems where clinicians have been trained on “CASPAR,” evaluations show increased referrals based on client need, longer episodes of patient care, and less counselor turn-over.
The Risk and Needs Triage, “RANT™,” is a web-based decision support tool that helps judges and other criminal justice officials assign drug-involved offenders to the community programs best matched to their assessed level of risk and needs.
“TRI-CEP” is a standardized assessment and tracking system for judges, an outgrowth of TRI research into the operative elements of drug courts. In one state where TRI-CEP has been installed, some drug court judges now receive standardized information on a client’s performance in treatment before they render judgments.
TRI is a world-renowned ASI training center. Standardized, empirically developed manuals help clinicians make the best use of TRI assessment tools.
Drug court trainings teach judges how to use treatment data to apply the right mix of sanctions and rewards to enhance client outcomes.
Consultation on performance-based purchasing, and continuous recovery and continuous patient tracking, and other best practices is offered by experienced TRI investigators.
The “Brief Intervention for Substance Abusing Adolescents” is a CD Rom training that teaches clinicians and college-based counselors techniques for working with teens and young adults with low to moderate use of drugs or alcohol.
Education and Knowledge Dissemination
Educating state legislators and journalists on trends in treatment are projects joining TRI researchers with policy makers and those who shape public opinion. In the NIDA-funded Addiction Studies Program, TRI and the National Conference of State Legislatures join project leaders from the Wake Forest University of Medicine and National Families in Action to sponsor workshops for competitively selected state teams of executive and legislative branch policy makers.
Working through the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, TRI investigators helped transform empirical findings into concept papers for California policy makers. Recently proposed reforms to California’s Proposition 36 diversion program were a direct result of this initiative.
TRI is collaborating with the Partnership for a Drug Free America to educate parents and pediatricians about the developing adolescent brain and techniques for recognizing and responding to signs of drug use in youth.
Adapting and Evaluating Evidence Based Practices in Real World Settings
TRI researchers are evaluating aftercare and other extended care models in public and private treatment settings. Ultimately, the goal is to develop affordable protocols promoting long-term recovery through continuous care and monitoring of patients.
For a single state agency, TRI is helping develop and evaluate a continuum of performance-based purchasing strategies that reward providers for improvements in processes of care (i.e., higher treatment retention rates).
Motivational incentives to encourage patients to enter and stay in treatment are being adapted and tested to determine if they are affordable and acceptable to providers.
The influence of
family members in changing behavior among substance abusers is well established
but difficult to achieve in real life. TRI investigators are testing strategies
for using members of religious
communities as surrogates when family members cannot act in this role.
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