Methods for transferring new technology and research findings into the general practice of substance abuse treatment are in need of improvement. This proposal represents a direct extension of work conducted over the past 10 years at Texas Christian University (TCU) for developing and implementing cognitive and behavioral interventions that improve client engagement and outcomes in community-based treatment programs. It is conceptually integrated and focuses on (1) measurement of client engagement and performance during treatment, (2) intervention manuals that address special needs of clients, (3) a cognitive-based tool to improve counseling, and (4) a behavioral protocol for increasing early engagement of clients. Transferring these research-based innovations to practice, however, requires new studies of """"""""organizational factors and process."""""""" We propose the development of systematic assessments (i.e., from the program director and clinical staff) of motivational readiness, personal attributes, institutional resources, and organizational climate to use as predictors in a series of technology transfer studies that will focus on 4 dimensions of treatment program management and service delivery. Through collaboration with the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) and the large state-wide network of 193 substance abuse programs it funds, a set of interrelated studies are planned. Follow-up surveys of implementation outcomes will be based on information collected from staff as well as related TCADA records from clients at participating programs. Our objectives are to (1) develop a comprehensive assessment instrument of organizational readiness for change, based on motivation and personality attributes of program leaders and staff, institutional resources, and organizational climate, (2) document the predictive validity of this instrument across different types of innovations, (3) examine changes in organizational readiness over time in relation to interventions designed to raise motivation, (4) develop and test the effectiveness of transfer strategies that address different levels of readiness for change, (5) assess the differential effectiveness of various transfer strategies for innovations that vary in complexity, counseling demands, and organizational resource requirements, and (6) in the case of partial or complete failure to adopt an intervention, identify the reasons involved.
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