Researchers at the University of Kentucky (UK) and Texas Christian University (TCU) have received a $4.7 million, five-year grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to support a new study aimed at reducing overdose risk among women in the criminal legal system.

Michele Staton, Ph.D., from UK and Kevin Knight, Ph.D., from TCU are leading the collaborative project, along with TCU’s Danica Knight, Ph.D. The team aims to adapt and test an innovative intervention approach for women with a history of substance use disorders and exposure to violence.

In the U.S., women are disproportionately affected by drug overdoses, with those involved in the justice system experiencing higher rates of overdose risk. This project addresses the need for intervention approaches that target the unique risks faced by justice-involved women.

The research team will adapt an existing approach called Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) to assist women with substance use disorders as they transition from prison to community life. Developed by the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at TCU, TBRI is designed to address early adversity, violent victimization and relational trauma, focusing on creating safe, connected relationships to heal from trauma.

The program will adapt TBRI for women before and after their release from prison and will include group therapy sessions, planning sessions with a support person before release and ongoing support after release, including video calls with a trained professional.

“Women leaving prison often have complex histories of substance use and trauma, which, if not treated, can increase their risk for relapse and overdose during community reentry,” said Staton, a professor in the UK College of Medicine’s Department of Behavioral Science and faculty associate in the UK Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. “Tailoring TBRI for this population can provide a trauma-informed, scalable intervention that supports emotional regulation and recovery for this high-risk and vulnerable group of women.”

“This is an innovative and significant extension of NIH-funded research conducted by both UK and TCU over the past two decades,” said Knight, a professor at TCU and director of the Institute of Behavioral Research.

In partnership with the Kentucky Department of Corrections, the research will take place in two women’s prisons in Kentucky, as well as at TCU partner women’s prison sites. The study will compare the adapted TBRI approach with standard treatment. If successful, this method could serve as a model intervention for women with substance use disorders involved in the criminal legal system.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R61DA061365. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.