The Navigator Trial

Summary

In this study, the investigators will investigate if there is a better intervention for patients who present to the emergency department with an overdose or with symptoms consistent with drug use. There are currently two interventions that are routinely used when a patient comes to the Emergency Department with these criteria, and the investigators will compare the two. The first is when hospital social workers uses their own previous training to help people meet their goals. The second is when a person called a peer navigator, who is someone that has been in long-term drug recovery for over two years and has completed a lot of training to work with current drug users, delivers an intervention to current drug users and uses their own training and real- life experiences to help people meet their goals. The investigators hope to determine if patients have better outcomes if they work with one of these two groups.

If a patient agrees to be in the study, the research staff will randomize them (like flipping a coin) to see if they will work with a social worker or a peer navigator. The research staff will distribute a survey in RedCap and the following information will be collected: age, sex, race, type of opioid used, and history of chronic pain, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Once the patient is assigned to a group, they will work with their assigned interventionist for the duration of the study. After this, the research team will track the patient to see if they joined an addiction-treatment program within 30 days of when the joined the study. The study team will also track patients to see if they had additional emergency department visits, additional overdoses, and if they successfully completed a treatment program over an 18-month period.

650 patients will be enrolled into the study.

Conditions

• Opioid Use
• Opioid Dependence
• Opioid Abuse
• Opioid-Related Disorders

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Peer Navigator Intervention

A peer navigator delivers an intervention to current drug users and uses their own training and real- life experiences to help people meet their goals.

BEHAVIORAL

Social Work Intervention

A hospital social workers uses their own previous training to help people meet their goals.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Brown University

  collaborator OTHER

• Rhode Island Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Francesca Beaudoin, MD · Brown Emergency Medicine

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-11-14

Primary Completion

2021-05-14

Completion

2022-11-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations