Rapid Adaptation to Prevent Drug Use (RAPD): protocol of a pilot randomized trial to enhance the impact of an evidence-based intervention for youth.

Background: Drug use trends change rapidly among youth, leaving intervention experts struggling to respond promptly. Delays in responses can lead to preventable morbidity and mortality. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for implementation science to facilitate rapid, equitable responses using existing treatment and prevention efforts. Existing, widely adopted evidence-based interventions (EBIs; e.g., the Michigan Model for Health™: MMH) are well suited to address emerging drug trends. We have a critical need to advance implementation strategies to optimize system responsiveness to these emerging drug issues. This research aims to design and test implementation strategies to (1) improve the responsiveness of school-based EBIs in addressing urgent issues and (2) find ways to support teachers in implementing updated EBIs, attending to unique considerations of schools serving economically disadvantaged students.

Methods: The research aims are as follows: aim 1: identify implementation gaps and best practices using After Action Review (a reflective process used by health organizations in responding to emergent public health events) using qualitative methods. Aim 2: design and pilot test RAPD (Rapid Adaptation to Prevent Drug use) based on aim 1 findings. RAPD refers to a novel set of implementation strategies designed to enhance the capacity of an existing, widely adopted evidence-based universal prevention curriculum (MMH) to respond to emerging drug issues among youth. We will pilot test RAPD in ten middle schools serving diverse student populations using a two-group, mixed method, cluster randomized controlled trial design. Aim 3: assess the costs and benefits of RAPD from multiple partner perspectives using a mixed methods approach.

Discussion: This study focuses on designing and deploying implementation strategies to reduce the detrimental impact of emerging drugs and provide an infrastructure to make future adaptations that can be applied in other contexts. After Action Review (AAR) provides a valuable opportunity to review the statewide response to past drug use events, specifically the vaping crisis, using the MMH curriculum, which can systematically guide implementation strategy selection and deployment to meet identified gaps. The rationale for the proposed research is that designing and testing RAPD will advance implementation science in responding to urgent public health events and ensure equitable responses across youth populations.

Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05806840 .