For Immediate Release
March 5, 2007
Contact: Katrina Norfleet
301-587-1600
media@mayatech.com
MayaTech Receives Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant to Evaluate African Americans' Access to Substance Abuse Treatment
The MayaTech Corporation of Silver Spring, Md., in partnership with Andrews University, has recently been awarded a 30-month grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Substance Abuse Policy Research Program to evaluate factors potentially affecting African Americans' access to outpatient substance abuse treatment.
The purpose of the project is to examine whether state Medicaid policies governing outpatient substance abuse treatment coverage help or hinder access to treatment services by African Americans. Duane McBride, Ph.D., director of Andrews University's Institute for the Prevention of Addiction, will serve as the project's Principal Investigator, and Jamie Chriqui, Ph.D., director of MayaTech's Center for Health Policy and Legislative Analysis , will serve as the Co-principal Investigator.
"Many African Americans face barriers to accessing treatment services, which include lack of resources, transportation, and childcare," states Dr. Chriqui. "Recent data also suggest that African Americans participate in Medicaid as the only or primary insurance at a higher proportion than other racial or ethnic groups, and that is why the analysis of these state programs is key."
State Medicaid data will be compiled by the study team and linked with treatment program and client admissions data collected by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Analyses will focus on identifying differences in policies that are related to equal access to services.
"Concern about equal access to drug treatment services has become a major issue in our society," explains Dr. McBride. "Considerable evidence suggests that substance abuse treatment is effective and that state policy can play a major role in determining access to these necessary services."
The research project will involve three studies specifically to examine 1) state Medicaid requirements for outpatient substance abuse services, 2) the differences in Medicaid versus non-Medicaid funded programs that may affect African Americans, and 3) the relationship between state Medicaid policies and treatment program practices.
The MayaTech Corporation and Andrews University also are collaborating on a 50-state analysis of methamphetamine precursor policies under a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice.
The MayaTech Corporation is a consulting and technical services company that provides high quality, customer-focused applied research, policy, and evaluation; conference and logistics management; information and communications systems support; technical assistance; and international development services to public and private sector clients. Founded in 1985, the company is headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., and has offices in Atlanta, Ga. For more information, visit www.mayatech.com.
The Institute for the Prevention of Addiction (IPA) at Andrews University was founded in 1985. The mission of the Institute is to engage in a wide variety of research focusing on the Epidemiology of health risk behavior, prevention strategies to reduce risk behaviors, best practice intervention services and policies to reduce health risk behaviors. Researchers at the IPA have conducted research projects nationally and internationally and published their findings in over 100 articles, books and monographs and have had projects supported by a wide variety of governmental funding agencies as well as private foundations. For more information, visit www.andrews.edu/IPA.
