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Project SHIELD 2.0: Police Education to Support Public Health in Kentucky

Award Number: R33DA060622
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 05/15/2024
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 04/30/2029

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Project SHIELD 2.0: Police Education to Support Public Health in Kentucky - The overall goal of this two-phase (R61/R33) study is to build capacity in the behavioral health workforce (BHW) by training them to deliver an evidence-based police education program to reduce HIV risk among people who use drugs (PWUD). A robust evidence-base indicates certain policing practices, such as arrest, can elevate overdose and infectious disease risk by preventing access to life-saving medications. Despite police officers having wide discretion when responding to drug-related offenses, arrest and incarceration rates of PWUD remain high, which in turn increase rates of HIV, HCV, and overdose. This study will help fill a critical gap in the science to examine the impact and scalability of a policy-level HIV prevention intervention that shifts policing away from arrest and toward referral to evidence-based medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). The Safety and Health Integration in the Enforcement of Laws on Drugs (SHIELD) is a police education program that has been implemented in numerous U.S. jurisdictions that focuses on reducing occupational risks and burnout among police, and task-shifting to increase referrals to essential services for PWUD, such as MOUD. Thus far, delivery of SHIELD has relied on a specialized academic team limiting its scalability. In this study, we will move SHIELD into the hands of the BHW to implement “SHIELD 2.0” in a region of Appalachia that has been hard hit by overlapping epidemics of overdose and blood-borne virus transmission. Evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of this approach will be a critical step towards SHIELD 2.0 scalability and population impact. We will leverage the infrastructure of an ongoing cohort of approximately 500 PWUD (R01DA033862) in Kentucky to externally validate SHIELD 2.0. In the first year of this study (R61 phase), we will rapidly assess BHW acceptability and readiness to deliver a SHIELD 2.0 to police (Aim 1) and adapt and pilot the SHIELD 2.0 implementation strategy to assess its feasibility and acceptability (Aim 2). In the R33 phase, we will then conduct a Type 2 hybrid implementation-effectiveness study to evaluate the SHIELD 2.0 implementation model (n=150) (Aim 3), and determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of SHIELD 2.0 (Aim 4). We will evaluate this by leveraging county-level administrative substance use data and laboratory-measured hepatitis C incidence from large ongoing NIH-funded cohorts. Outcomes will include fatal and non-fatal overdose rates, emergency department visits, and MOUD utilization and retention. Surrogate endpoints include police referral to behavioral health services. We expect findings from this study to be high-impact and would visibly transform policing to reduce health outcomes that disproportionately affect PWUD. Further, enhancing the role of law enforcement agencies to reduce HIV/HCV risk through enhancing access to HIV/HCV prevention services, such as MOUD, is a major interagency priority of the Department of Health and Human Services, DOJ, and the Office of National AIDS Policy.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $1,295,849 )
2026	2026	THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY	3400 N CHARLES ST	BALTIMORE	MD	21218	BALTIMORE CITY	USA	Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs	000	3	5/20/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,295,849
														Subtotal = $1,295,849

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $1,182,981 )
2025	2025	THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY	3400 N CHARLES ST	BALTIMORE	MD	21218	BALTIMORE CITY	USA	Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs	000	2	5/2/2025	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$1,182,981
														Subtotal = $1,182,981

Grand Total All Awards = $2,478,830

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Project SHIELD 2.0: Police Education to Support Public Health in Kentucky

Award Number: R33DA060622

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 05/15/2024

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 04/30/2029

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