NIDA CTN DI Mentor-Facilitated Training Awards Develop Future Leaders in SUD Education

Since 2012, the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network Dissemination Initiative (NIDA CTN DI) Mentor-Facilitated Training (MFT) awards have supported health care trainees in the dissemination of best practices in substance use disorder (SUD) screening, prevention, and treatment.

Physicians, physician associates, nurses, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists across the country have benefited from the program, which funds year-long, mentored dissemination projects. MFT awardees identify gaps in evidence-based SUD knowledge and treatment delivery, and address these gaps by creating trainings, workshops, and tools and resources for their colleagues and other providers in health care settings, schools, and communities.

“Being a part of the MFT program opened my eyes to the gateway of publishing,” R. Shavon Clark, DNP, APRN, AGNP, says. Clark had not considered a career path that included investigation and publishing before she participated in the 2022 MFT program. Her project focused on screening pregnant women for substance use disorders. After distributing her project beyond her institution to Healthy Start, Early Steps, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), First 1000 Days, and three obstetrics and gynecology practices in her community, she used her MFT award as a springboard to a secondary project that was published in The Journal of Addictions Nursing.

“The NIDA CTN MFT awards are developing future health care leaders in substance use disorder treatment,” says NIDA CTN DI Contracting Officer’s Representative Quandra Blackeney. Ongoing partnerships with health care associations serving trainees are vital to sustaining the MFT program. The 2024 MFT awardees are sponsored by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), the American Academy of Medical Toxicology (ACMT), the National Medical Association (NMA), and the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). Awardees will present their projects at the 2024 NIDA CTN Steering Committee meeting and at their sponsoring associations’ annual conferences.

Do you work with trainees who may benefit from the MFT program or have an interest in mentoring? Visit the NIDA CTN DI webpage or email NIDA_CTN_DI@bizzellus.com to learn more.