This is a proposal to establish the Florida Regional Node of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN). Four major research centers at the University of Miami have joined to provide the Regional Research and Training Center (RRTC) with their considerable clinical trials, multi-site, and drug abuse treatment expertise: Center for Family Studies, Comprehensive Drug Research Center, Center for Treatment Research on Adolescent Drug Abuse, and Behavioral Medicine Research Center. The Community Treatment Programs (CTPs) elected are among the largest and most respected in the State, representing the north(Gateway in Jacksonville), central (PAR in Tampa; Center for Drug Free Living in Orlando) and south (The Village in Miami; Spectrum in Broward County) pats of the State. They offer exceptional diversity of treatment modalities, ethnic profiles, and drug abusing and addicted populations. In the first year, The Florida Node has the capacity of serving up to 20,000 drug abusing and addicted patients. The Florida Node Steering Committee includes the leaders of the 5 CTPs, the P.I., and the Co-P.I/Operations Director. Each of the other teams also include RRTC and CTP representation: Clinical Trials Training and Implementation Monitoring, Concept Development, and Biostatistics/Data Management. In this partnership both the RRTC and the CTPs are eager to learn from each other, and eager to learn about efficacious treatment models that can be transported from other nodes to Florida's treatment programs. The Florida Node RRTC has developed and published efficacious family- based treatment models and brings considerable strength in family-based interventions with drug abusing populations (adolescent drug abusers, drug addicted new mothers, HIV+ women using drugs intermittently) and with HIV+ populations (HIV transmission prevention, family ecological therapy to improve individual and family functioning). The Node's interests in these areas range from transportability of interventions to statistical methodological issues in aggregating family data in longitudinal designs. Particular challenges to the work of the Florida Node include communication and collaboration across geographic distance. Facilitators include eagerness to provide quality services, interest in using outcome data to update state treatment funding policies, recognition of a zeitgeist in the state and the nation of accountability, and prior collaboration among the CTP under the New Century Institute umbrella to promote the group's treatment and research competence.
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