Shane Koch, associate professor of rehabilitation, is leading the SIUC team on the three-year project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

DCFS received $1.5 million to help Franklin-Williamson Human Services Inc. expand outpatient treatment of adult meth users in four rural Southern Illinois counties. While Franklin-Williamson focuses on treatment, DCFS is providing services such as parenting training and home visits to help recovering addicts strengthen and preserve their families.

The SIUC team's role is to evaluate these agencies' efforts in order to improve them. What treatments and services are most effective in helping meth addicts recover? The team is using its $300,000 share of the grant to help field addiction counselors find out, by gathering and analyzing data derived from their work with the addicts.

The goals are to find proven, data-supported methods to improve treatment for addicts while narrowing the traditional gap between counselors in the field and researchers, Koch says.

"We want to develop cutting-edge treatment for parents, thereby improving the quality of life for kids," he says. "When the parents are doing meth, there are all kinds of toxicity issues, abuse, and neglect. So there are all kinds of ways this project can help individuals."

Other SIUC team members include administration of justice professor George Burruss, three doctoral students, and a postdoctoral researcher.

Meth, which is highly addictive, can cause serious health problems. But Koch wants people to know that there are hopeful options for treatment.

"The bright news about meth is that people are getting better," he says. "A piece of this research we're doing is [to] demonstrate [that] meth addiction can be treated successfully."

—by Tim Crosby, Univ. Communications