SBIR-STTR Award

Youth under age 18 involved in the criminal justice system are disproportionately minorities and affected by substance abuse, mental illness, and HIV/STI. Most young offenders are released on community supervision without the STI, mental health, or substance use screening, diagnosis, and treatment afforded detained youth, despite similar rates of risk behavior. Their long-term trajectory is poor, the costs to society are high, and lasting effects on community well-being and individual employment prospects are profound. Altering this trajectory is a public health priority. Preventing HIV Among Teens (PHAT) Life is an evidence-based program that meets the need in juvenile justice to address youths' co-morbid health problems. The next––and perhaps most critical––step in ensuring that this decade-long line of research produces actual, real-world improvements in the lives of probation youth is to develop a PHAT Life training strategy that is effective, cost-effective, and sustainable within juvenile justice settings. This private/public collaboration between Oregon Research Behavioral Intervention Strategies and the University of Illinois at Chicago will leverage existing resources and competencies to create a commercially viable technology-based training tool for PHAT Life with great potential for sustainability and cost-effectiveness. Building on PHAT Life's past research, in this SBIR Phase I research we will (a) develop and evaluate a prototype interactive web browser and mobile app multimedia training tool to enable para-professionals (e.g., health educators, probation staff, youth care staff) to deliver PHAT Life to youth on probation, and (b) identify additional training materials needed to address facilitator gaps (e.g., HIV/STI knowledge, managing group dynamics). The proposed technology-based training tool should be highly sustainable, because it (a) relies on “indigenous” personnel to deliver the intervention, (b) is likely to prove cost-effective since we will utilize a technology that can deliver training at scale, and (c) will improve fidelity both by leveraging technology to provide consistent training experiences to para-professionals and by including a computer-mediated video recorded observation of group sessions that will be reviewed and graded by an expert trainer to increase the likelihood of intervention implementation fidelity.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Project Narrative This application will develop a commercially viable technology-based training tool for Preventing HIV Among Teens (PHAT) Life, an evidence-based, innovative HIV/STI, substance use, and mental health intervention for juvenile offenders. The training tool will include (a) interactive web browser and mobile app multimedia content to enable para-professionals (e.g., health educators, probation staff, youth care staff) to deliver PHAT Life to youth on probation, and (b) identify additional training materials needed to address facilitator gaps (e.g., HIV/STI knowledge, managing group dynamics). Once developed, the training tool will be field tested for usability and acceptability with a group of “indigenous” personnel as facilitators-in-training; participants will rate the level of support needed, confidence in the system, and ease of use at each stage in the development, initiation, and maintenance of the system.

NIH Spending Category:
Adolescent Sexual Activity; Behavioral and Social Science; Bioengineering; Clinical Research; Comparative Effectiveness Research; Health Disparities; Infectious Diseases; Mental Health; Minority Health; Networking and Information Technology R&D (NITRD); Pediatric; Pediatric Research Initiative; Prevention; Sexually Transmitted Infections; Violence Research; Youth Violence; Youth Violence Prevention

Project Terms:
Address; Adolescent; Affect; Age; AIDS prevention; Alcohol or Other Drugs use; base; Behavioral Research; Benchmarking; Caring; Chicago; Collaborations; commercialization; commercially viable technology; Communities; community setting; Competence; Complex; Computers; cost; cost effective; cost effectiveness; Criminal Justice; Development; Diagnosis; efficacy trial; Employment; Ensure; evidence base; Evidence based program; experience; Feasibility Studies; Feedback; field study; follow-up; Health; Health Educators; HIV; HIV/STD; Human Resources; Illinois; improved; Indigenous; Individual; Information Resources Management; innovation; interactive multimedia; Internet; Intervention; Interview; Justice; juvenile delinquent; juvenile justice system; Learning; Letters; Life; Maintenance; Mediating; Mental disorders; Mental Health; Minority; mobile application; Monitor; Multimedia; new technology; Oregon; Outcome; Participant; Personal Satisfaction; Phase; Pilot Projects; prevent; Preventive Intervention; Privatization; probation; Procedures; Program Sustainability; programs; prototype; Public Health; public health priorities; Research; Resources; Risk Behaviors; satisfaction; scale up; screening; sexual risk taking; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Societies; STI prevention; Substance abuse problem; Supervision; Support Groups; System; Technology; Teenagers; Testing; Time; tool; Training; Training Activity; Training Programs; Universities; uptake; usability; webinar; Youth

Youth under age 18 involved in the criminal justice system are disproportionately minorities and affected bysubstance abuse, mental illness, and HIV/STI. Most young offenders are released on community supervisionwithout the STI, mental health, or substance use screening, diagnosis, and treatment afforded detained youth,despite similar rates of risk behavior. Their long-term trajectory is poor, the costs to society are high, and lastingeffects on community well-being and individual employment prospects are profound. Altering this trajectory is apublic health priority. Preventing HIV Among Teens (PHAT) Life is an evidence-based program that meets theneed in juvenile justice to address youths' co-morbid health problems. The next--and perhaps most critical--step in ensuring that this decade-long line of research produces actual, real-world improvements in the lives ofprobation youth is to develop a PHAT Life training strategy that is effective, cost-effective, and sustainable withinjuvenile justice settings. This private/public collaboration between Oregon Research Behavioral InterventionStrategies and the University of Illinois at Chicago will leverage existing resources and competencies to createa commercially viable technology-based training tool for PHAT Life with great potential for sustainability andcost-effectiveness. Building on SBIR Phase I research, in this Phase II application proposes to use a formativeprocess to refine, enhance and complete the technology-based training tool to include: (a) an interactivemultimedia web browser and mobile application, (b) dynamic multimedia presentations and interactive queries,(c) video examples of mock intervention delivery, (d) audio narration along with scripted language, (e) briefquizzes to ensure comprehension and knowledge acquisition, (f) opportunities to "learn more" by clicking on tabsfor supplemental information, (g) targeted referrals to appendix materials, (h) games to promote engagement,and (i) other adaptations based on Phase I feedback. The proposed technology-based training tool should behighly sustainable, because it (a) relies on "indigenous" personnel to deliver the intervention, (b) is likely to provecost-effective since we will utilize a technology that can deliver training at scale, and (c) will improve fidelity byleveraging technology to provide consistent training experiences to para-professionals. We will evaluate thetraining tool via a 2-arm RCT with 130 individuals who work with justice-involved youth. All trainees will receivethe technology-based training tool and half will be randomized to receive supervision prior to real-life delivery.We will evaluate facilitator knowledge and satisfaction, and fidelity to PHAT Life following real-time interventiondelivery. We will assess key implementation outcomes, including cost, feasibility, acceptability and sustainability.The proposed study is highly significant with strong commercialization opportunities for a scalable trainingsolution that supports implementation fidelity and program sustainment addressing a key public healthimperative.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
PROJECT NARRATIVE Justice-involved teens are disproportionately minorities and affected by substance abuse, mental illness, and HIV/STI. Evidence-based programs (EBP) are much-needed to address their co-morbid health problems, but uptake of EBPs in the juvenile justice system is challenging since training is often costly in personnel time and effort. The proposed study to complete a technology-based training tool that teaches individuals to deliver PHAT Life, an evidence-based intervention for justice-involved teens, will facilitate broad uptake, dissemination, and implementation while reducing costs typically incurred in in-person group training programs, therefore, making this scalable training solution a support in implementation fidelity and program sustainment as well as having a strong commercialization opportunity and high public health impact.

Project Terms: