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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Katherine J. Riley, EdD¹, Eldon Edmundson, PhD¹, and Gwyneth Miriam Moya, MPH². (1) Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd., CB669, Portland, OR 97239-3098, (2) Addiction Prevention and Treatment Team, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, PO Box 2316, Route 1 and College Road East, Princeton, NJ 08543, 609-627-5811, gmoya@rwjf.org

This session will focus on discussion of lessons learned from a qualitative evaluation of the use of change teams in substance abuse treatment agencies to improve access and retention of clients. The NIATx (Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment) collaborative of over 40 substance abuse treatment agencies, funded in separate projects by the RWJ Foundation and CSAT, has asked participating organizations to develop change teams that initiate creative solutions to address these goals over an 18 month or 3 year period, respectively. This session will describe the process that these teams have followed and describe factors that enhanced or inhibited their success. Our findings suggest that change teams are a useful strategy to improve processes that will increase patient access and retention and that teams that are most successful in meeting those aims have the following characteristics: facilitative change leader, supportive management, involvement from a wide representation of staff, emphasis on the client's point of view, and use of data to provide feedback.

Learning Objectives: