Dr. Noah Triplett plans to expand and deepen his work in rural Maryland combatting substance use, thanks to a new National Institute on Drug Abuse grant of $909,084 over five years.
The award is part of the National Institutes of Health’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative, aimed at speeding scientific solutions to the opioid public health crisis. The grant will support both advanced training and a five-year research study focused on improving access to substance use treatment for adolescents in rural communities.
We want to develop practical and scalable approaches that help expand access to proven services for youth battling substance use across Maryland and beyond.
Dr. Noah Triplett
Working with school and community partners on the Eastern Shore, Triplett will examine how external behavioral health services can be effectively integrated into school settings and sustained over time. Together Triplett and his health and education partners in rural Maryland will identify opportunities to improve current services and also test strategies to expand service reach and effectiveness.
As part of the grant, Triplett will expand his expertise in adolescent substance use prevention and treatment and school- and community-partnered research methods. All of the training will focus on applying specific research methods to rural and small-town contexts.
“Rural youth face unique risks for substance use and also have unique challenges to accessing services. If we can improve the reach and effectiveness of the services that do exist in these communities, we can hopefully make a lasting impact on the mental health and substance use of these youth” said Triplett.
This research grant was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, under grant number K23DA065849. A total of $909,084 is financed with federal funds. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.