ReDO

The primary objective of the “Responding to the Deep South’s Substance and Opioid Use Disorder Crisis” project is the expansion and enhancement of community-based, integrated, interprofessional behavioral health training within the clinical psychology graduate program, Dept. of Psychology at The University of Alabama. We have expanded our training sites (two federally qualified health centers [FQHCs] and one residential and transitional housing facility) to include individuals with criminal justice involvement due to substance and/or opioid use disorder (SUD/OUD). Research highlights holistic SUD/OUD treatment reduces risk for further involvement in the criminal legal system. Expansion of our current behavioral health training program to include the unique perspective of Psychology and Law faculty will further distinguish our GPE from other training programs across the nation.

Continuation of our training program is building on the success of our university-community partnerships to address directly multiple clinical priorities. These include: 1) improving the mental health provider short-age in Alabama, a high need and high demand area, 2) providing SUD/OUD services for multiple vulnerable populations (racial/ethnic minorities; rural residents, older adults, criminal justice/legally-involved, low-income patients within FQHCs), 3) providing training in integrated health care within interprofessional teams of two or more disciplines, and 4) utilizing tele-behavioral health services to increase the reach of SUD/OUD prevention, assessment, treatment, and recovery in our partnering training sites.

Our goals will be achieved via four primary aims:

  1. Enhance pre-doctoral clinical psychology and tele-behavioral health training opportunities in underserved settings, including: 1) integrated health care settings in two FQHCs, 2) a residential and transitional housing facility, and 3) Tuscaloosa city mental health courts.
  2. Enhance our graduate-level course on evidence-based SUD/OUD practice to include information on legally involved individuals.
  3. Support a community-engaged research approach to developing and implementing evidence-based SUD/OUD assessment, treatment, and prevention in participating sites using the RE-AIM implementation science framework.
  4. Expand our interprofessional clinical training and research committee through campus-community partnerships.

For more information on ReDO please reach out the Dr. Rebecca Allen, Principal Investigator at rsallen@ua.edu