The Blending Teams

---

The Blending Initiative Teams listed below collaborate to identify and develop a strategic plan and products used to disseminate research results identified by NIDA as ready for adoption by the addiction treatment workforce. The Blending Teams are:

• Buprenorphine Awareness Blending Team
• Addiction Severity Index (ASI) Blending Team
• MI Assessment Blending Team
• Buprenorphine Detoxification Blending Team
• Promoting Awareness of Motivational Incentives Blending Team

Blending Teams, comprised of Community Treatment Programs (CTP) and researchers affiliated with NIDA's Clinical Trials Network (CTN) and staff from SAMHSA/CSAT's Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network are charged with the dissemination of research results that are ready for adoption and implementation into practice. These Teams identify and develop activities and materials (e.g. trainings, self-study programs, workshops and distant learning opportunities) for the addiction treatment field that will provide the tools necessary to access and adopt NIDA research protocols.

Buprenorphine Awareness Blending Team

The Buprenorphine Awareness Blending Team developed a training package to create awareness about Buprenorphine among multi-disciplinary addiction professionals. The materials include information designed to increase motivation for bringing Buprenorphine to local communities, as well as information about what to expect when someone is treated with this medication.

Download this training package, Buprenorphine Treatment: A Training for Multidisciplinary Addiction Professionals.

To learn more about the clinical use of Buprenorphine for treatment of opioid addiction, please go to www.buprenorphine.samhsa.gov or www.nida.nih.gov.

The Buprenorphine Awareness Blending Team members are:
NIDA	SAMHSA/CSAT-ATTC
Leslie Amass, Ph.D Friends Research Institute, Inc. Gregory Brigham, Ph.D Maryhaven Community Treatment Program Eric Strain, MD Johns Hopkins University	Glenda Clare, MA Central East ATTC Gail Dixon, MA Southern Coast ATTC Beth Finnerty, MPH Pacific Southwest ATTC Thomas Freese, Ph.D, Blending Team Chair Pacific Southwest ATTC

Return to top

Addiction Severity Index (ASI) Blending Team

The ASI Blending Team designed a training package to transform required "paperwork" into clinically useful information. The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) is one of the most widely used tools for the assessment of substance use-related problems. Addiction counselors working in community-based treatment centers administer the ASI, yet often fail to use findings to identify client problems, develop individualized treatment plans, and make referrals matched to client needs. Intake workers, counselors, supervisors, and managers often view the ASI assessment as time consuming and not clinically useful. In addition, supervisors and administrators often do not utilize treatment plans to monitor treatment outcomes and/or client retention. This training package teaches clinicians how the ASI information can be used for clinical applications and assist in program evaluation activities.

Coming Soon: Treatment Planning M.A.T.R.S.: Utilizing the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) to Make Required Data Collection Useful

The ASI Blending Team members are:
NIDA	SAMHSA/CSAT-ATTC
Deni Carise, Ph.D Treatment Research Institute Meghan Love Treatment Research Institute A.Thomas McLellan, Ph.D Treatment Research Institute	Nancy Roget, MS Mountain West ATTC Richard Spence, Ph.D, Blending Team Chair Gulf Coast ATTC Pat Stilen, LCSW, CADAC Mid-America ATTC

Return to top

Motivational Interviewing (MI) Blending Team

The MI Blending Team developed a collection of tools for mentoring counselors in the use of Motivational Interviewing skills during clinical assessments. The Motivational Interviewing Assessment protocol has produced improvements in frequency of client attendance and retention in treatment during the first month of care, two predictors of a positive treatment outcome.

The package is available to agencies interested in learning about and perhaps adopting this empirically-supported treatment practice. Using this package will enhance both counselor MI skills and the supervisor's ability to provide more structured, focused and effective clinical supervision.

Download this training package, Motivational Interviewing Assessment: Supervisory Tools for Enhancing Proficiency (MIA:STEP)

The Motivational Interviewing Blending Team members are:
NIDA	SAMHSA/CSAT-ATTC
Samuel Ball, Ph.D Yale University School of Medicine John Hamilton, LMFT LMG Programs Community Treatment Program Steve Martino, Ph.D Yale University School of Medicine	Sherry Ceperich, Ph.D Mid-Atlantic ATTC Steven L. Gallon, Ph.D, Blending Team Chair Northwest Frontier ATTC Maria del Mar Garcia, MSW, MHS Caribbean Basin & Hispanic ATTC Denise Pyle, LPC, NCC Mid-Atlantic ATTC Edna Quinones, Ph.D Caribbean Basin & Hispanic ATTC

Return to top

Buprenorphine Detoxification Blending Team

This Blending Team designed a training package to instruct providers on the administration of a 13-day Buprenorphine taper for opioid dependent patients. The training reviews the results from research conducted by the NIDA Clinical Trials Network which compared Buprenorphine to clonidine in both inpatient and outpatient settings. In addition, the training provides instruction for implementing this protocol into treatment settings. Topics include methods of evaluation and induction, the taper schedule, and use of ancillary medications during treatment.

Download this training package, Short-Term Opioid Withdrawal Using Buprenorphine: Findings and Strategies from a NIDA Clinical Trials Network Study.

The Short-Term Opioid Withdrawal Using Buprenorphine Blending Team members are:
NIDA	SAMHSA/CSAT-ATTC
Gregory Brigham, Ph.D Maryhaven Community Treatment Program Judith Harrer, Ph.D VA Medical Center Community Treatment Program Dennis McCarty, Ph.D Oregon Health Sciences University	Beth Finnerty, MPH Pacific Southwest ATTC Thomas Freese, Ph.D Pacific Southwest ATTC Kay Gresham-Morrison, LCSW, ACSW Southeast ATTC Susan Storti, Ph.D, RN ATTC of New England

Return to top

Promoting Awareness of Motivational Incentives Blending Team

The Promoting Awareness of Motivational Incentives (PAMI) Blending Team developed the tools contained in this package to build awareness of Motivational Incentives (MI) as a science-based therapeutic strategy within the addiction treatment field. MI, also referred to as contingency management, is a form of behavioral therapy based on B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning principles. Positive rewards increase client retention in treatment programs, a strong predictor of positive treatment outcomes, when compared to counseling alone (Higgins et al., 1994, Petry et al., 2000). The products in this package illustrate positive outcomes and lessons learned from the NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN) study, Motivational Incentives for Enhanced Drug Abuse Recovery (MIEDAR). (Projected Release Date: Winter 2007)

Promoting Awareness of Motivational Incentives Blending Team members are:
NIDA	SAMHSA/CSAT-ATTC
John Hamilton, LMFT, Berke Associates Scott Kellogg, PhD, New York University Therese Killeen, RN, PhD, Medical University of South Carolina	Lonnetta Albright, Blending Team Chair, Great Lakes ATTC Amy Shanahan, MS, Northeast ATTC Anne Helene Skinstad, PhD, Prairielands ATTC
Additional Contributors
Maxine Stitzer, PhD, Johns Hopkins University Nancy Petry, PhD, University of Connecticut Health Center Candace Peters, MA, CADCPrairielands ATTC Stanley Zlotkowski III, Z3 Concepts

---

The free PowerPoint Viewer 2003 is available from Microsoft^® and will allow you to view presentations created in PowerPoint 97 or later.

Some files will require Adobe Reader for viewing.