Towards Testing the Effectiveness of Recovery Community Centers (RCCs)

Summary

The goal of this pilot randomized clinical trial is to prepare for a larger randomized clinical trial (RCT) and collect some early data to learn if the intervention can help people who use medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Is it feasible to recruit and randomize people to both treatment groups?
2. Does linking people to recovery community centers lead to better recovery outcomes?

Researchers will compare linking people to recovery community centers (RCC) to enhanced treatment as usual to see if recovery outcomes are different.

In one group, participants will learn about their local RCC and will be asked to visit their local RCC on at least two days and write about their experiences. In the other group, participants will learn about different recovery activities, pick any two, and do the activities of their choice on at least two days. They will also be asked to write about their experiences.

People in both groups will answer online survey questions about their recovery outcomes and well-being in five surveys over one year.

Conditions

• Opioid Use Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Recovery Community Center Participation

Recovery community centers are brick and mortar buildings that house recovery-oriented organizations, located in the heart of their communities. They act as recovery hubs, offering a variety of recovery support services in house as well as connecting participants to resources in their area. They are peer-led organizations that are open to anyone in early or long-term recovery from substance use and that recognize that there are multiple pathways to recovery. Study participants will be provided with information about their local RCC (including a video link, contact information, a monthly calendar of events, a list of services and activities offered by the RCC, transportation options, etc.) and will be asked to visit the RCC on two different occasions within one month of enrollment.

BEHAVIORAL

Enhance Treatment as Usual

In this study, the enhanced treatment as usual intervention will encompass providing participants with information about diverse recovery activities (e.g., mutual help group meetings, exercise, job search, recovery coach meetings, etc.) and then to assign participants to complete a recovery activity of their choosing one two different days within one month after enrollment. Participants can do the same activity twice, or different activities on each of the two days assigned.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

  collaborator NIH

• Massachusetts General Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Bettina Hoeppner, Ph.D., M.S. · Massachusetts General Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-08-20

Primary Completion

2026-08-31

Completion

2027-04-15

Countries

• United States

Study Locations