{"id":293454,"date":"2025-10-11T01:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T01:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/293454\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T01:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T01:56:11","slug":"tcu-institute-of-behavioral-research-awarded-five-year-7-2-million-nih-grant-to-promote-community-deflection-strategies-reduce-justice-system-involvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/293454\/","title":{"rendered":"TCU Institute of Behavioral Research Awarded Five-Year, $7.2 Million NIH Grant to Promote Community \u2018Deflection\u2019 Strategies, Reduce Justice System Involvement"},"content":{"rendered":"The Institute of Behavioral Research (IBR) at Texas Christian University (TCU) has been awarded a five-year, $7.2 million grant from the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study \u201cdeflection\u201d approaches that connect people with unmet substance use needs to community-based services as early as possible \u2013 rather than through arrest or prosecution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Led by\u00a0Jenny Becan, Ph.D.<\/a>, IBR senior research scientist and\u00a0Kevin Knight, Ph.D.<\/a>, professor and IBR director, the\u00a0TCU BRIDGE to Deflection Project\u00a0(Building Resilient Initiatives for Deflection through Greater Engagement) will be conducted Sept. 1, 2025 through May 31, 2030. The effort is part of the\u00a0Justice Community Overdose Innovation Network (JCOIN) Phase II<\/a>, a national initiative supported by NIDA to improve approaches to addressing opioid use and overdose in justice-involved populations, and aligns with the\u00a0NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative<\/a>, which seeks to speed the development and implementation of scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis. Duke University, New York University School of Medicine, and six other research institutions were also designated JCOIN 2.0 clinical research hubs, with each conducting independent studies.<\/p>\n

Working within 20 communities across Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, BRIDGE will strengthen locally driven deflection models by fostering community engagement, interagency collaboration and advocacy. Core partners include local law enforcement, first responders and behavioral health providers, who will collaborate with TCU researchers to test innovative implementation strategies and evaluate impacts on public health and public safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project aims to address the interconnected challenges of substance use and crime by actively engaging local community members in deflection efforts.\u201d Becan said. \u201cWe expect the study to deepen understanding of how deflection improves outcomes for people who use drugs and to inform best practices for communities nationwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBRIDGE is an innovative and significant extension of continuous NIH-funded research at TCU\u2019s IBR over the past three decades in public health and safety,\u201d Knight said. \u201cAs a leading research institute within TCU\u2019s College of Science & Engineering, IBR continues to secure NIH funding that advances our national leadership in research with real-world impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number RM1DA064502. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.<\/p>\n

\u201cTCU\u2019s Institute of Behavioral Research tackles some of the biggest issues in public health, so the NIH\u2019s support of this collaborative effort with other leading universities allows us to deliver immediate impact for our community and beyond,\u201d Reuben Burch, TCU vice provost for research said. TCU leadership has prioritized achieving Research One status, and research is a core pillar of TCU\u2019s Strategic Plan. \u201cThis is an ideal example of how TCU faculty are leading the way with research that makes a difference in the world while enhancing our students\u2019 academic experience. We are grateful for the leadership of Dr. Knight and his team in securing such a prestigious award, demonstrating TCU\u2019s excellent research capacity.\u201d\u202f<\/p>\n<\/td>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Institute of Behavioral Research (IBR) at Texas Christian University (TCU) has been awarded a five-year, $7.2 million…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-293454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115353051831007423","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}