Principal Investigator: Dr. Natasha Slesnick
Dr. Slesnick and her team of colleagues at UNM CASAA are conducting the FLORA project. This project is funded by NIAAA and is in its fifth and final year of study. FLORA is designed to investigate the relative outcomes of two family-based treatment modalities in reducing alcohol use and increasing family and psychological functioning within a sample of alcohol abusing runaway adolescents. Subjects are recruited from Albuquerque's two runaway shelters, screened for eligibility, and engaged into the project. Dr. Slesnick and her colleagues have developed an engagement procedure that has a high rate of success in engaging these adolescents into the project. After engagement, subjects are randomly assigned into one of three groups: (1) Ecologically-based family therapy, (2) traditional, office based family therapy, and (3) treatment as usual through the shelter. Treatment outcome is then evaluated using a battery of assessment tools. Subjects complete an assessment at pretreatment, 3, 9 and 15 months post-intake. Additionally, the adolescent's primary caretaker is asked to complete several questionnaires at pretreatment, and each follow-up point. The goals of this project include identifying a potent family-based intervention for treating alcohol abusing runaway adolescents, and developing a treatment manual to guide intervention.
Dr. Slesnick and her team of colleagues at UNM CASAA are conducting the FLORA project. This project is funded by NIAAA and is in its fifth and final year of study. FLORA is designed to investigate the relative outcomes of two family-based treatment modalities in reducing alcohol use and increasing family and psychological functioning within a sample of alcohol abusing runaway adolescents. Subjects are recruited from Albuquerque's two runaway shelters, screened for eligibility, and engaged into the project. Dr. Slesnick and her colleagues have developed an engagement procedure that has a high rate of success in engaging these adolescents into the project. After engagement, subjects are randomly assigned into one of three groups: (1) Ecologically-based family therapy, (2) traditional, office based family therapy, and (3) treatment as usual through the shelter. Treatment outcome is then evaluated using a battery of assessment tools. Subjects complete an assessment at pretreatment, 3, 9 and 15 months post-intake. Additionally, the adolescent's primary caretaker is asked to complete several questionnaires at pretreatment, and each follow-up point. The goals of this project include identifying a potent family-based intervention for treating alcohol abusing runaway adolescents, and developing a treatment manual to guide intervention.
