Dissemination of Project Towards No Drug Abuse (TND): Findings From a Survey of Program Adopters

Abstract

This study examines adoption and implementation decisions among organizations that purchased Project Towards No Drug Abuse from 2001 to 2004. Telephone interviews were conducted with 120 organizations nationwide. The most common reason for adopting the program was its evidence base. In schools, classroom teachers were more likely to deliver the program than other types of implementers, and in nonschool organizations, prevention specialists, and counselors were more common (p <.05). Most organizations (73%) reported that they delivered all of the program sessions. The limitations of the study, as well as the implications of the findings for future research and wide-scale prevention program dissemination, are discussed.

RÉSUMÉ

Diffusion du projet «towards no drug abuse» (tnd, vers le zero usage abusif de drogues): conclusions d’une étude sur les adoptants du programme

La présente étude examine les éléments de la décision d’adoption et de mise en œuvre du programme au sein des organismes qui ont acheté le projet « Towards No Drug Abuse» de 2001 à 2004. Cent-vingt organismes aux États-Unis ont répondu aux interviews téléphoniques. Les résultats probants ont été la raison la plus souvent citée pour l’adoption du programme. Dans les établissements scolaires, ce sont les enseignants qui étaient les plus susceptibles d’offrir le programme, tandis que dans les autres organismes, les conseillers et les spécialistes de la prévention constituaient les intervenants les plus courants (p < 0,05). La plupart des organismes (73%) ont indiqué que toutes les sessions du programme avaient été utilisées. L’article couvre les limites de l’étude, ainsi que les implications que laissent entendre ses conclusions pour les futures activités de recherche et de diffusion d’un programme de prévention à grande échelle.

RESUMEN

Diseminación del proyecto “towards no drug abuse” (“tnd”, para evitar el uso de drogas): resultados de una encuesta de las personas que adoptaron el programa

Este estudio examina las decisiones de adopción e implementación entre las organizaciones que adquirieron el Proyecto “Towards No Drug Abuse” del 2001 al 2004. Las entrevistas telefónicas fueron realizadas con 120 organizaciones a nivel nacional. La razón más común que se citó para adoptar el programa fue la base de su evidencia. En las escuelas, los maestros fueron quienes más presentaron el programa comparado con otros tipos de ejecutores, mientras que en organizaciones no académicas, los consejeros y los especialistas en prevención fueron los que lo usaron más comúnmente (p <.05). La mayoría de las organizaciones (73%) indicaron que presentaron todas las sesiones del programa. Se mencionan laslimitaciones del estudio, así como también las implicaciones que tienen estos resultados en la investigación futura y en la diseminación de un programa de prevención a gran escala.

Keywords :

• translation
• dissemination
• prevention
• implementation
• drug abuse

THE AUTHORS

Steve Sussman, Ph.D., FAAHB, FAPA, received his doctorate in social–clinical psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1984. He is a professor of preventive medicine and psychology at the University of Southern California. He studies etiology, prevention, and cessation within the addictions arena, broadly defined. He has over 345 publications. His projects include Towards No Tobacco Use, Towards No Drug Abuse, and Project EX, which are considered model programs at numerous agencies (i.e., CDC, NIDA, NCI, OJJDP, SAMSHA, CSAP, Colorado and Maryland Blueprints, Health Canada, U.S. Department of Education, and various State Departments of Education). He received the honor of Research Laureate for the American Academy of Health Behavior in 2005, and he was President there (2007–2008). Also, as of 2007, he received the honor of Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 50, Addictions). As of 2010, he will be the Editor of Evaluation & the Health Professions.

Louise A. Rohrbach, Ph.D., is currently an Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California, Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research. Her research focuses on interventions to prevent tobacco, alcohol, and other drug abuse among youth. Currently, her primary emphasis is translational research, which examines strategies for moving evidence-based programs and practices into real-world settings. She has been the principal investigator on several NIDA-funded studies, including one that examined the relative effectiveness of two interventions for diffusion of Project Towards No Drug Abuse and a study of the effects of Hurricane Rita on adolescent drug use. Currently, she is leading an evaluation of a community-developed adolescent smoking cessation program. During the past two decades, Dr. Rohrbach has been a collaborator on several other prominent community- and school-based prevention studies, including the Midwestern Prevention Program (Project STAR), Adolescent Alcohol Prevention Trial, Project ALERT, and the School-Based Substance Use Prevention Programs Study (SSUPPS). She has published widely in the areas of tobacco and other substance use prevention, school-based health, and etiology of adolescent tobacco use, and has served on numerous state and national committees addressing these issues.

Melissa Gunning, MPH, is a doctoral student and a research assistant in preventive medicine at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on adolescent substance use and type II translation of evidence-based prevention programs, including dissemination, adoption, fidelity of implementation and sustainability.

Gaylene Gunning has been in the field of health science for over twenty years. Her education is in organizational management, with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of La Verne. Ms. Gunning is currently with the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California. She has spent more than a decade in health education, curriculum development and implementation. Ms. Gunning has been in the position of Project Manager on several major grants sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute on Drug Abuse, California State Department of Health Services, and the People's Republic of China. The areas of substance abuse in which she has studied and monitored include tobacco use, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse in settings that include both schools and the general community. She has facilitated and conducted training workshops on Projects TND, TNT, and EX throughout the United States and internationally.

Rachel Grana, MPH, is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the University of Southern California (USC). Her current work focuses on the etiology of tobacco and other drug use among adolescents, with a specific focus on social and cultural determinants. Prior to her doctoral studies and obtaining her Masters in Public Health at USC, she worked at MasiMax Resources, Inc. as a contractor to the National Cancer Institute's Tobacco Control Research Branch.

Notes

1 The journal's style utilizes the category substance abuse as a diagnostic category. Substances are used or misused; living organisms are and can be abused. Editor's note.

2 As of 2007, SAMSHA no longer distinguishes programs as “model,”“effective,” or “promising,” and instead simply provides scoring information from multiple dimensions for every program reviewed. (See the SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices, available at http://www.nrepp.samhsa.gov.)

3 The reader is asked to consider that the concepts and processes of “risk” and “protective” factors are, often noted in the literature, without adequately helping one to understand their dimensions (linear, nonlinear), their “demands”, the critical necessary conditions (endogenous as well as exogenous ones; micro to macro levels) which are necessary for either of them to operate (begin, continue, become anchored and integrate, change as de facto realities change, cease, etc.) or not to, and whether their underpinnings are theory-driven, empirically-based, individual and/or systemic stake holder-bound, historically-tradition driven, based upon “principles of faith” or what. This is necessary to clarify if the term is not to remain as yet another shibboleth in a field of many stereotypes. Editor's note.