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Columns::November 26, 2001
Business executive will speak on campus
European Union cabinet member will discuss emerging agricultural trade issues during Fanning Lecture
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Study calls for workforce coalition to address state’s rural housing
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Campus News
Grants of $7 million will support studies of substance abuse treatment
By Allyson Mann
tiny@uga.edu
A UGA faculty member has been awarded two grants worth more than $7.3 million from the National Institutes of Health for
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| Paul Roman |
his research on substance-abuse treatment organizations. Paul Roman, Distinguished Research Professor and director of the Center for Research on Behavioral Health and Human Services Delivery, will have five years of research support to explore two new areas: the organizational performance of treatment centers and the relationship between management and performance in long-term treatment programs.
“Dr. Roman’s work in behavioral health research and substance-abuse treatment, as well as in the education of graduate students, has brought great prestige to the University of Georgia,” says Gordhan Patel, vice president for research and associate provost. “His work is also very important in the public health arena, which is one of the important initiatives being undertaken by the university.”
Roman says the new funding will allow him to take his research in multiple directions.
“Without stable platforms for treatment service delivery, there can be no services,” he says. “We are concerned with how science becomes translated into practice, and in what settings this translation is most effective and most enduring. We also are focused on the kinds of substance-abuse treatment systems that show high performance in a competitive and ever-changing environment.”
One of Roman’s new projects will compare the organizational performance of treatment centers affiliated with NIH’s Clinical Trials Network for Drug Abuse Treatment with the performance of treatment centers outside the network. Centers in the network are heavily exposed to research about new treatment techniques, and Roman will assess whether this exposure has a long-term impact on the quality and quantity of treatment services and the stability of the organizations. The study will also examine the extent to which the centers in the network develop scientific orientations and positive attitudes toward the introduction of new treatment and managerial practices.
A second project will study the relationship between management and performance in a national sample of therapeutic communities, which are long-term treatment programs for drug dependency. Therapeutic communities have shown outstanding results for lasting recovery and abstinence from drugs, but are demanding and expensive. The new research will focus on how therapeutic communities retain clients and attract community resources. Many of the staff in these communities are recovering addicts who have undergone treatment.
This research will offer a unique opportunity to examine their transitions from addict to manager responsible for running a complex organization.
“Paul Roman has been in the forefront of research on substance abuse in the workplace,” says Rex Forehand, director of UGA’s Institute for Behavioral Research. “These two grant awards reflect his status in the field and will allow him to continue to address a set of critical health-related questions facing our society today.”
Roman has directed a pre-doctoral training program in alcohol and the workplace, also supported by NIH, for 14 years.
The Center for Research on Behavioral Health and Human Services Delivery encompasses many research issues associated with behavioral health, including the cause of various types of illness conditions, studies of health-related preventive interventions, and research on the organization of human services delivery like substance abuse. The center is part of UGA’s Institute for Behavioral Research. |
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