This is a request for a NIDA Career Development Award for Sonia A. Alemagno, Ph.D. This award is proposed to allow Dr. Alemagno to develop and implement a new telecommunications-based methodology for community- based public health research and intervention projects on transient populations such as runaway and street youth, foster care and adjudicated youth, adult homeless, migrant workers, and those in transition due to institutionalization or other temporary housing. The Statewide Telecommunications Risk Evaluation, Education and Tracking (STREET) System will be developed as a public health telecommunications warning network for drug abuse and HIV risk behaviors. The system will have the capacity to conduct baseline risk interviews, provide voice mail for longitudinal tracking of clients, offer computer bulletin board and support groups services by telephone, and conduct follow-up risk interviews. The system will be developed using voice response technologies developed at Cleveland State University under a previous NIDA grant that developed a case management telecommunications system for drug-addicted pregnant women. The system will be evaluated using pilot reliability and validity studies on subpopulations such as teenage runaways and adult homeless. Intervention pilot studies will also be performed to examine the system's utility for tracking transient populations for longitudinal studies. The system will be implemented in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. For the pilot studies, eight shelters located throughout Ohio will collaborate in a telecommunications network for risk behavior tracking. Results will be distributed by standardized fax output to the network and to those who request aggregate statewide results. The training curriculum for this award will lead to a Masters in Public Administration degree with an emphasis in Drug Abuse Health Services Research. The mentors for this career development project will be Dr. Farrokh Alemi (Cleveland State University, Associate Professor of Health Care Administration) and Dr. Richard C. Stephens (University of Akron, Department of Sociology).
