SUBSTANCE ADDICTION COLLABORATION CHANNEL(SACC)

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): (Phase-2, Renewal) The SACC-Substance Addiction Collaboration Channel(R) platform is a new Collaboration, WEB-2.0 springboard specifically designed to structure and share information across the Behavioral/Mental Health Workforce community with the special focus on Substance-Addiction Disorders. SACC is an individual and group-level application platform that is akin to Facebook and other social networking applications. The foremost goal of SACC is to stem the information delivery crisis that now faces this clinical Workforce and to stem the tide of fragmentation across the service delivery sector. This crisis is significantly hindering the delivery of key diagnostic and treatment service to a population that is spread across our national landscape: the Urban-to-Suburban-to-Rural-to-Frontier setting. The SACC platform is a new WEB-2.0 collaboration platform that is built upon the most recent engineering software systems. It focuses on learning, sharing and structuring behavioral/mental health best practices. Members from professional associations and focus action teams strategically located in multiple states have helped in the pre-planning analysis and design of the SACC platform. MRI image sets have been translated into 3D- and 4D-image sequences that show both healthy and non-healthy brains. The brain models then are hyperlinked to new research findings that, together, form a unique Visual Knowledge Base that the addiction community can quickly access, share, addto, and discuss. New User Interface utilities are built into SACC including access portals to the Visual Knowledge Base, a new generation of interactive e-Learning modules that heretofore have not been available, and content from the NIDA-TOOLKIT. For thefirst time, the SACC platform provides new collaboration channels that inter-link researchers, clinicians, families, communities and individuals. It is believed the evaluation process will show the efficacy of SACC as a significant, long-term benefit forchanging service delivery. Thus, SACC will become a primary force in finally establishing a valid credentialing/ licensing process that has been sought after for so long. The SACC team consists of experts from psychiatry, neurology, nursing, addiction counseling, social work, occupational therapy, clinical anatomy, computer engineering, medical visualization, instructional technology and a milieu of community volunteers spread across Rural America. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This 24-month, Phase-2 SBIR project is called: SACC--[the] Substance Abuse Collaboration Channel(R) . For the first time, the SACC platform unifies the clinical and services intervention communities by providing a newly focused WEB-2.0 design that integrates enabling technologiesspecifically designed for collaborative communications. The SACC platform focuses on knowledge discovery, brain modeling linked to behavioral health, clinical support, and peer-to-peer information sharing-all elements that form the springboard needed to improve our national and global public behavioral/mental healthcare delivery systems. For the first time, delivery of Evidenced-based Services developed for community settings in Rural and Frontier regions will be possible. These communities always have been hampered by the Lack of State-of-Art Information desperately needed of clinical interventions, for the information resources needed to improve organizational structures and activities that make effective implementation of key interventions possible.