Project SHIELD 2.0

Summary

The project is a pragmatic, quasi-experimental hybrid type II effectiveness-implementation trial of a structural HIV prevention intervention to address police behavior (arrests and referrals) and ultimately improve health among people who use drugs. The study involves a novel implementation strategy that engages behavioral health workers as "local champions" in the delivery of an evidence-based police education program (SHIELD training intervention). In addition to examining implementation outcomes, primary outcomes focus on assessing effectiveness of the intervention among police (specifically in reducing drug-related arrests and promoting referrals to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) treatment. The investigator's overarching effectiveness hypothesis is that after law enforcement organizations receive the SHIELD training intervention, they will be more likely to refer people who use drugs to MOUD treatment and other health and social services, rather than arresting them for low level possession offenses. The study will be conducted across different counties in Appalachian Kentucky.

Conditions

• HIV
• Substance Use Disorder (SUD)

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

SHIELD 2.0

SHIELD is an evidence-based police education training program that has been demonstrated to change police behavior (arrest and referrals) and improve outcomes among police and people who use drugs in NIH-funded and other research studies. The original intervention delivery relied on academic teams, limiting sustainability and scalability. Our novel "SHIELD 2.0" implementation strategy aims to address these limitations by capacitating the local behavioral health workforce to implement the steps of the SHIELD process, specifically to complete the delivery of the SHIELD intervention to local police officers.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Kentucky

  collaborator OTHER

• Northeastern University

  collaborator OTHER

• San Diego State University

  collaborator OTHER

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

  collaborator NIH

• Brown University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of California, San Diego

  collaborator OTHER

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Javier Cepeda, PhD, MPH · Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology

• Eileen Pitpitan, PhD, MA · San Diego State University School of Social Work

• Leo Beletsky, JD, MPH · Northeastern University School of Law, Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-06-25

Primary Completion

2027-12-31

Completion

2029-04-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations