Alliances to Disseminate Addiction Prevention and Treatment (ADAPT)

The ADAPT team’s main goal is to increase access to and use of evidence-based addiction services for youths involved in the juvenile justice system. The ADAPT team will work with participating counties to improve the alliance between the juvenile justice system (JJ) and community mental health centers (CMHCs) through a system-level intervention. Youth involved in the JJ system are at particularly high risk for substance use (SU) disorders and are rarely connected to evidence-based care in the community. As depicted by the Juvenile Justice Behavioral Health Services Cascade (“Cascade”), there are many opportunities for youth to drop out of the continuum of addictions care; for example, the juvenile justice system may not identify youths’ need for services or offer referrals to quality community programs. Many youths do not initiate or engage in services, even when referred. The study’s investigators hypothesize that ADAPT will positively impact those affected by SU disorders and relapses into prisons over time.