Assistant professor receives a Center for Addiction Research, Education, and Service's Science to Systems Grant
Marik Moen, PhD '18, MPH, RN, assistant professor, received a one-year pilot grant for $50,000 from the Center for Addiction Research, Education, and Service's (CARES) Science to Systems Grant program. Moen will serve as the principal investigator for the project, “Partnering with People with Substance Use Disorders as Stakeholders to Improve Assessing and Addressing Health-Related Social Needs."
Morbidity and mortality related to substance use attained levels never before experienced in 2020. While successful employment and treatment for persons with substance use disorders (SUDs) can prevent death and illness, Moen's team recognizes that SUDs and barriers to successful SUD treatment and employment for persons with SUDs are often rooted in the social determinants of health (housing, income, employment, education, etc.). Health care systems, employers, and SUD treatment programs increasingly recognize the need to address social determinants of health in their patient/employee populations to achieve better outcomes. However, most systems have yet to implement screenings for social needs in a systematic, standardized, or person-centered manner (that is, informed by patient, staff, or employer preferences and values). As a result, we fail to grasp the patient/stakeholder perspective of how assessing unmet needs are viewed, what social needs are most relevant, and what to do about them. These gaps in knowledge and practice result in missed opportunities to address problem conditions, to appropriately allocate resources, or to adapt care/interventions for improved outcomes.
To address these concerns, the grant team aims to establish a stakeholder panel consisting of patients, staff, and employers at SUD clinics to guide the research approach from start to finish. The PATIENTS program will work with faculty from the Schools of Nursing, Social Work, and Medicine and with partners from Unlimited Bounds (community-based) and the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) Treatment Center at 1001 W. Pratt St. to facilitate implementation of the ten-step Patient Engagement Framework. Next, they will gain firsthand expertise about the preferred methods of assessing, documenting, and addressing health-related social needs from persons with substance use disorders, from direct-service staff, and employers of persons with SUDs. Further, this project will facilitate the UMMC Treatment Center’s goals of establishing a patient-advisory panel to guide them in evaluating future research projects as they are proposed.
CARES established the Science to Systems pilot grant program to generate new substance use-related prevention, treatment, and system enhancement initiatives designed to improve addiction-related systems of care. The grant program sought projects that demonstrate a capacity to produce measurable outcomes directly relevant to SUD service delivery within a 12-month period.