Bridging the Gap: Preliminary Findings from a Facilitated Systems Change Approach Involving Community Supervision and Community Treatment Agencies

• In Event: Using Implementation Science to Improve Services for Substance-Involved People on Probation

Abstract

Background: Facilitated collaboration between systems has been shown to help criminal legal agencies improve the full cascade of substance use services. This presentation focuses on the interagency change team of one large urban probation jurisdiction and its community treatment partner, which had the goal of increasing opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment referrals among adult probation clients, an often underserved population.
Methods: The site participated in several activities: (1) selection of 1–3 goal(s) to improve movement of adult probationers through the OUD services cascade, (2) identification of activities required to achieve each goal, and (3) creation of a written action plan with defined assessment measures. Goals met S-M-A-R-T criteria and change plans were based on the Plan-Do-Study-Act and NIATx process improvement models.
Results: This site utilized a local change team (LCT) consisting of ten probation and community treatment staff. The identified goals and implementation action plans contained steps needed to achieve the selected goal, relevant stakeholders, anticipated outcomes, and potential challenges. The action plans yielded a total of 18 new referrals over a five-month active testing period.
Conclusion: The results of these improvement efforts suggested that site was successful in selecting goals and in developing the implementation action plan.

Authors

• Lauren Perron, Temple University

• Steven Belenko, Temple University

• Rosemarie Martin, Brown University