Category: News & Announcements

This year we presented during two sessions at the 40th Annual RSA Scientific Meeting:

UNDERSTANDING ALCOHOL USE AND TREATMENT
EFFECTS IN MARGINALIZED POPULATIONS
ORGANIZER/CHAIR: SUSAN E. COLLINS

LIFE ENHANCING ALCOHOL-MANAGEMENT PROGRAM (LEAP): COMMUNITY-BASED DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF HOUSING FIRST PROGRAMMING – SEEMA L. CLIFASEFI – A nonrandomized controlled trial of LEAP programming (N =118) indicated that participants receiving LEAP programming are more likely to participate in meaningful activities than control participants who received treatment as usual.

RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF HARM-REDUCTION TREATMENT FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE WITH AUDS – SUSAN E. COLLINS – A randomized controlled trial (N=180) of individual behavioral harm-reduction treatment for AUDs follows on a successful pilot study, which was associated with reduced alcohol quantity, frequency and problems.

AND

HEALTH DISPARITIES IN ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUG PROBLEMS AND HEALTH EQUITY APPROACHES (WORKSHOP)

TREATMENT AND PREVENTION: COMMUNITY PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES – SEEMA CLIFASEFI, SUSAN COLLINS, & LONNIE NELSON – CBPR intervention for housing-unstable urban Native Americans and Alaska Natives with substance use disorders.

Seema Clifasefi, Co-Director of HaRRT, talks about enhancing life for Housing First residents at the DESC fundraiser.

Enhancing Life at DESC from DESC on Vimeo.

Joey – Finale 1811 from Richard Gold on Vimeo.

1811 Finale from Richard Gold on Vimeo.

A celebration of community artwork from the Life Enhancing Alcohol-Management Project (LEAP) at 1811 Eastlake

Thursday, Dec 1, 4-6pm
1811 Eastlake, 4^th Floor

Imagined and created by the Art Collective, a growing group of 1811 Eastlake residents, who are individuals with lived experience of homelessness and alcohol use problems, the 1811 Peace Quilt Mural has been two years in the making. The Art Collective successfully advocated for and secured a dedicated Art Room at 1811. A handwritten note on the door reads, “A Place to Grow.” And indeed, the Collective has grown out of the Art Room and onto the walls of the 4^th Floor. The mural’s theme of “Peace, Hope, and Conflict Resolution” was born out of Art Collective meetings as residents came together to identify ways to reduce alcohol-related harm, improve quality of life, and create healing in their community. The Peace Quilt Mural progressed through a process of negotiation in meetings of residents, Art Collective members, Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) staff and administration, and University of Washington-Harborview Medical Center’s Harm Reduction Research and Treatment (HaRRT) center researchers. The mural highlights the vision of six resident artists and speaks to themes of heritage and tradition, mourning, remembrance, and the connectedness of all things. This project has been an ongoing source of pride in the growing connection between residents. As one 1811 resident and artist put it, “Every time I look at [the mural], I think, ‘Hey, I did this. I accomplished this.’ And it represents all of us.”

The hallways surrounding the Art Room and the Peace Quilt Mural will be hung with artwork created by 1811 residents over the Art Collective’s two years of vibrant life. Expect light refreshments, music by community members, and a brief unveiling ceremony.

ABOUT LEAP

For questions about the LEAP or donations to help the LEAP Art Collective, please contact: Seema Clifasefi at 206-543-3452 or seemac@uw.edu.

 

Check out the video UW Medicine made of our event!: https://youtu.be/s-ldmpPEyzs (link opens in new tab)

 

The UW LEAP study partnered with Pongo, a local nonprofit writers’ group, to bring the healing properties of poetry to individuals with the lived experience of homelessness and alcohol use problems.  Writing mentors worked with residents between September 17th-November 12th to create meaningful poetry around topics such as love, loss, alcohol and baseball. On November 18th, a poetry reading evening was held for people to share their work with the community. It was a joyous occasion!

An article published in Real Change covers our work with the Life Enhancing Alcohol-management Program (LEAP) and the art collective. Read article

“Meeting People Where They’re At: Community-based Harm Reduction Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorders”

Dr. Susan Collins was selected as one of three New Investigators to be featured in the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Science in Medicine lecture series and will be representing the HaRRT lab’s awesome work!

Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM

Location: HSB D-209, Turner Auditorium
UW Health Sciences Center (D-wing)

More info: Science in Medicine presents Dr. Susan Collins

“Meeting People Where They’re At: Community-based Harm Reduction Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorders”

Friday Noon Conference is held in the Harborview R&T building #109 from 12-1 (NE corner of 9th Ave & Alder, ground level), where lunch will be served.  As always, we ask everyone to do their best to be seated on time.

Dr. Collins is a licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of Washington – Harborview Medical Center. She has been involved in substance use research for nearly two decades and has disseminated this work in over 60 book chapters, abstracts and peer-reviewed articles. Together with her colleague, Dr. Seema Clifasefi, she codirects the Harm Reduction Research and Treatment Lab. In the HaRRT lab, she works with a multidisciplinary research and clinical team, community-based agencies, traditional Native healers, and substance-using community members to co-develop and evaluate interventions that aim to reduce substance-related harm and improve quality of life for affected individuals and their communities. Dr. Collins is an awardee of the G. Alan Marlatt Memorial Research Award for her contributions to alcohol research and was recently nominated as one of three New Investigators in the University of Washington Science in Medicine lecture series.

 

In early July 2015, Drs. Clifasefi and Collins went to the White House to share with President Obama’s senior policy advisers and delegates from across the county their program evaluation on a harm-reduction approach to criminal justice: the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program (LEAD). Read their two reports showing how LEAD decreases criminal recidivism as well as criminal justice and legal system utilization and associated costs here. Read press on this here.

specific aim 2 6.24.15 FINAL

UW_LEAD_Evaluation_Team_Report_on_Recidivism 3.27.15